So today is all about silence.  That said, I won’t write long here.  But there’s a few things that can kind of guide you through a time of silence. Start off doing a minute, then 3, then 6, then if you’re feeling it go to 10.  Between each section read a short except for your consideration.  Mostly though, just be.  With no expectation of conversation, or eye contact, or niceties…just be, listening for the murmurings of our heart that call to us everyday, but we often cannot hear over the roar of life.

(1 minute)

Elijah is one of the great prophets of the Old Testament.  The following is a story of his experience of God from 1 Kings 19:11-12:  He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

(3 minutes)

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing

and rightdoing there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass

the world is too full to talk about.”

― Rumi

(6 minutes)

“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”

― Mother Teresa, In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers

(10 minutes)