This AM 10-18-2014 Its 5:00 AM as I sit with my head sunk upon my breast, with my left hand cradling it in meditation and prayer, with the air of a man who is lost in thought, this AM. I’m curious to learn what this new quest might be today and what will I write about, and what of God’s power that He will move upon my current thoughts. I think of the gift of grand silence to be a sure start, as I thought of my Facebook friend who bacons me as an invaluable friend and companion. I ponder my word, and write it as it is a great thing for me to have something to write about, for my own thoughts are not over-pleasant about the day, but by my writing it releases the frustration that I hold in my heart.. I was wondering what I should say today that affects me so much, and those I love. I shall just have time to tell you the facts as I see them. Facts or truth or something that my mind, yes as my mind races forward in silence.. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can get nothing to go upon. I cant get the end of it into my hand, but maybe you can see a spark where all is dark to me and something, yes and then it’s God’s inspiration. All writers on the spiritual life uniformly recommend nay, command under penalty of total failure, the practice of silence. And yet, despite this there is perhaps no rule for spiritual advancement more inveighed against, by those who have not even mastered its rudiments, than that of silence. Even under the old Dispensations its value was known, taught, and practiced. Holy Scripture warns us of the perils of the tongue, as Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). This advice is no less insisted on in the New Testament; witness: If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man James 3:2. The same doctrine is inculcated in innumerable other places of the inspired writings. The pagans themselves understood the dangers arising from unguarded speech. Pythagoras imposed a strict rule of silence on his disciples; the vestal virgins also were bound to severe silence for long years. Many similar examples could be quoted. Silence may be viewed from a threefold standpoint: •As an aid to the practice of good, we keep silence with man, in order the better to speak with God, because an unguarded tongue dissipates the soul, rendering the mind almost, if not quite, incapable of prayer. The mere abstaining from speech, without this purpose, would be that idle silence which St. Ambrose so strongly condemns. •As a preventative of evil. Senica, quoted by Thomas à Kempis complains that As often as I have been amongst men, I have returned less a man (Imitation, Book I, c. 20). •The practice of silence involves much self-denial and restraint, and is therefore a wholesome penance, and as such is needed by all. From the foregoing it will be readily understood why all founders of religious orders and congregations, even those devoted to the service of the poor, the infirm, the ignorant, and other external works, have insisted on this, more or less severely according to the nature of their occupations, as one of the essential rules of their institutes. It was St. Benedict who first laid down the clearest and most strict laws regarding the observance of silence. In all monasteries, of every order, there are special places, called the Regular Places (church, refectory, dormitory etc.) and particular times, especially the night hours, termed the Great Silence, wherein speaking is more strictly prohibited. My thought of the Jesuit college of St. Benedicts as I remember was such a place. Steven.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:00:35 +0000