By Tom Thomas –
It happened again. My words upset the one who heard them. Why is it so? That I am unable to control my emotions and my speech? I feel helpless. In desperation, I turn to the example of the Lord in the desert for forty days, alone and without speaking to anyone around me. How could He manage, when I am unable to be alone with myself, even for a few hours, or without speaking?
These words from the Holy Father are a pointer for me.
“This is today’s message: never direct your eyes away from the light of Jesus. It is a little like what farmers used to do in the past while ploughing their fields: they focused their gaze on a specific point ahead of them and, while keeping their eyes fixed on that point, they traced straight furrows.
This is what we are called to do as Christians while we journey through life: to always keep the luminous face of Jesus before our eyes. Holy Father Pope Francis in the Angelus Address of 25th February 2024 on the theme of transfiguration, exhorts us . The Holy Father goes on to say, “So let us ask ourselves: do I keep my eyes fixed on Christ, who accompanies me? And in order to do so, do I make space for silence, prayer, and adoration? Finally, do I seek out every little ray of Jesus’ light, which is reflected in me and in every brother and sister I encounter? And do I remember to thank him for this?”
I need to dig deeper in this Lenten season. To go into the desert of my innermost recesses and look for Him. With the constant noise of the world, silence is the way to hear Him.
I turn to the scriptures, and reading books such as Cardinal Sarah’s ‘The Power of Silence” and reading about the Carthusians, who spend most of their lifetimes in prayer and silence. Inspiration comes from them.
“At the heart of man there is an innate silence, for God abides in the innermost part of every person. God is silence, and this divine silence dwells in man. In God, we are inseparably bound up in silence. The Church can affirm that mankind is the daughter of a silent God; for men are the sons of silence. God carries us, and we live with him at every moment by keeping silence. Nothing will make us discover God better than his silence, inscribed in the center of our being. If we do not cultivate this silence, how can we find God? Man likes to travel, create, and make great discoveries. But he remains outside of himself, far from God, who is silently in his soul. I want to recall how important it is to cultivate silence in order to be truly with God. Saint Paul, drawing on the Book of Deuteronomy, explains that we will not encounter God by crossing the seas, because he is in our heart: Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does [the law] say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:6-9; Deut 30:12-14, 16” Robert Cardinal Sarah tells us in his book, The Power of Silence.
Wanting to know more about Silence, I go on to read about the Carthusians, one of the strictest and oldest monastic orders whose lives are like a perpetual Lent, spending 19 hours a day in their solitary cells, praying through the night when the rest of the world sleeps, forgoing meat for life, and eating only one main meal a day. Their focus on the Lord is so complete that they wish to attract the least attention to themselves . Any writings they do, are not signed by their names, but simply a byline saying “ By a Carthusian”. The movie Into Great Silence gives some idea of their most unusual lives, completely hidden from the world and only focusing in him in silence and solitude.
Thomas Merton has written much about the Carthusians, as they fascinated him when he wanted to leave a worldly life and follow the spiritual. He says, “We read that nowhere better than in true solitude does the monk discover the hidden sweetness of the psalms, the value of study and reading, intense fervor in prayer, the delicate sense of spiritual realities in meditation, the ecstasy of contemplation and the purifying tears of compunction. The purpose of Carthusian solitude is found in these words and in their context. Like every other monk, the Carthusian is the son and follower of the ancient prophets, of Moses and Elias, of John the Baptist, of Jesus Himself who fasted in the desert and spent many nights alone on the mountain in prayer. The purpose of Carthusian solitude is to place the soul in a state of silence and receptivity that will open its spiritual depths to the action of the Holy Spirit who makes known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and teaches us the unsearchable riches of the love and the wisdom of Christ.”
All this is great, but I wonder how I can seek Him in solitude? How is it even possible amid our hectic lifestyles today and also when I am living my lay vocation as a husband and father, far away from the tranquil climes of a Carthusian Monastery? I turn in perplexity to a kindly Franciscan Friar, my spiritual guide, who advises me “Tom, try and spend at least five minutes a day in silence. It can be anywhere. Then you will be able to hear Him.” This seems doable and I resolve to start this practice during Lent.
Talk less. Listen more. To Him and those around me.
For motivation, I ponder upon the words of Mother Teresa who used to spend hours in silence before Him every day, no matter how hectic her schedule was:
“The beginning of prayer is silence. If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.” Mother Teresa
Thomas Merton very succinctly speaks about the effect of silence in this way,” If you write for God, you will reach many men and women and bring them joy. If you write for men – you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead!” So too any communication that happens among us humans. In New Seeds of Contemplation, 1961.