Greetings,
Lent. Repentance. Penance. Prayer. Fasting. Almsgiving.
Enter into the mystery of silence.
Your goal in life is not to hold your tongue but to love, to know yourself and to receive your God. You need to learn to listen, how to retreat into the depths, how to rise above yourself.
Silence leads you to all this, so seek it lovingly and vigilantly. But beware of false silence: Yours should be neither taciturnity nor glumness, nor should it be systematic or inflexible, or torpid. Authentic silence is the gateway to peace, adoration and love. (Pierre-Marie Delfieux ; fr. A City Not Forsaken: Jerusalem Community Rule of Life)
When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but the prudent are restrained in speech. (Proverbs 10:19)
Men of few words are the best men. (William Shakespeare; fr. Henry V, 3.2, Sixteenth century)
Silence goes hand in hand with fasting. (Jean-Paul Aron; fr. The Art of Eating in France: Manners and Menus in the Nineteenth Century)
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:21)
Every year Benedict met with his sister, Scholastica, to spend the whole day in the praise of God and in holy conversation. At their last meeting it turned out that, because of his sister’s love and the power of her prayer, they spent the whole night in vigil and comforted each other with holy converse in spiritual things. But he did this seldom—once a year. This once was so meaningful, so gratifying, because it was filled with and permeated by a year’s silence. It was like a seed’s bursting forth after long months of quietly maturing, to grow, to blossom and to bear fruit. (Emmanuel Heufelder; fr. The Way of God, According to the Rule of St. Benedict)
But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him! (Habakkuk 2:20)
You know that good makes no noise and noise does no good. In the common life calm is necessary for the brothers and sisters who are praying, reading and writing, or at night, resting. For love, then, watch your step, your work, your greetings and your speech. Silence too is charity. (Pierre Marie Delfieux; fr. A City Not Forsaken: Jerusalem Community Rule of Life)
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is places among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. …but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. (James 3:5-6, 8-10)
The language that God hears best is the silent language of love. (John of the Cross; Sixteenth century)
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)
I am as rich as God.
Each dust mote
more or less
do I in common
with my God possess.
See what no eye can see,
go where no foot can go,
choose that which is no choice—
then you may hear
what makes no sound—
God’s voice.
(Angelus Slesius; Seventeenth century)
Yours & His,
DED
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