91热爆

Good morning

Being quiet is not something that is easily found today when we are distracted by bright lights, the ring of a mobile phone or the sound of a text message.聽 We are pulled at by worldly matters and rarely hear music above noise, let alone the sounds of silence.

Whilst silence is regarded as an authentic medium of prayer, it isn鈥檛 common religious practice even though the ability to listen to God in quiet is a common biblical theme.

As the Psalmist says, 鈥淏e still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him鈥�.

What do you say to God when you pray? Mother Theresa of Calcutta was once asked.聽 鈥業 don鈥檛 say anything鈥�, she replied, 鈥業 just listen.鈥� 鈥楢nd when you listen鈥�, she was asked again, 鈥榳hat does God say?鈥� 鈥楬e doesn鈥檛 say anything,鈥� she replied, 鈥楬e just listens.鈥�

Silence offers a way to ponder and listen for the divine, the unsayable and inexplicable.聽

Christian Religious Orders regularly observe silence and Quakers are noted for their tradition of silent 鈥榳aiting upon the Lord鈥�. As Elijah discovered on a ledge in a cave, God is not to be found in the fire, or the whirlwind, or in the earthquake but in a still small voice.聽 Some prefer silence because they believe in a God who speaks, albeit quietly.

Thomas Merton held that the only words required of a priest were those of the Mass since some things are so mysterious that one must be silent to understand them. It is not power that compels silence here, but the inadequacy of any attempt at communication. As Ludwig Wittgenstein said, 鈥橶hereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.鈥�

Or as the Books of Ecclesiastes has it, 鈥淭here is a time to keep quiet, and a time to speak.鈥� (3:7)

础尘别苍.鈥�