The Sound of Silence – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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One of the questions that I get asked as a monk quite often when I travel around is, “Are you a silent order?” Kind of a difficult one to answer. No – we don’t take a vow of silence, and we do talk quite a lot. But silence is a hugely important part of our monastic life. Guests sometimes say – “Oh, being silent – is that sort of part of the Brothers’ penance?”
I say – No – we like silence. I would go so far as to say, that for those who come on retreat in our guest houses here and at Emery House, the greatest gift we have to offer is the gift of silence. Why is silence important; such a gift? Because it is when we are deeply silent, that we are able to hear another voice speaking – the voice of God.
Today’s first lesson from the 1st Book of Kings is one of my favorite ones. Poor Elijah is scared stiff of being killed by Jezebel, and so he flees deep into the wilderness, all the way to Mount Horeb, the mount of God. And it is in that place, after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, that he encounters the living God. He was told that the Lord was about to pass by. There was a great wind, so strong it was breaking rocks in pieces – but the Lord was not in the wind. There was an earthquake – but the Lord was not in the earthquake. There was a fire – but the Lord wasn’t in the fire. And then came the sound of sheer silence – and in sheer silence he encounters the numinous, the otherness of God. And he has to hide his face before the Holy One.
There was God – in the sound of sheer silence. It sounds a contradiction – an oxymoron. How can God speak in silence? It is a contradiction – until you know it to be true. The sixteenth Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross famously said, “God’s first language is silence. Everything else is a poor translation.” It was only in that deep silence that Elijah could truly hear the Lord God speaking to him.
Coursing through all the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures there is this urgent call to be silent – and then to listen. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God….” The prophets plead again and again, “Hear O my people, listen to me….” “O my people you have shut your ears to the words of my mouth….” The Psalmist cries out in Psalm 81 “Hear O my people, and I will admonish you: O Israel, if you would but listen to me.” For Israel, the beginning of change, of conversion, of healing, came through listening.
That wisdom is at the very heart of monastic tradition. The very first word of the Rule of St. Benedict, which has been the guiding principle for Western Monasticism for fifteen centuries – the very first word is Obsculta – listen.
So, I wonder what part does silence play in your life? Do you enjoy silence? Can you tolerate silence? It is incredibly difficult to find a place of silence. So often the way we live our lives – frantic, non-stop – even when outwardly silent, so much is going on inside us: loud voices, drowning out God’s quiet vice.
For Benedict, as for the Old Testament prophets, the way of conversion was primarily through listening – carefully and deeply – with the ears of your heart – to the word of God. And in order to listen, we need to keep silence.
The SSJE Rule states: “Powerful forces are bent on separating us from God, our own souls, and one another through the din of noise and the whirl of preoccupation. Technology has intensified our risk of becoming saturated with stimuli.” (Ch. 27)
Think about your own life. Where do you weave silence into the fabric of your daily life? When there is silence, do you instinctively turn on the radio or the TV, or surf the net? If God seems distant or uncommunicative these days, maybe you’re simply not listening? God doesn’t shout. God’s first language is silence. Maybe in your prayers you are doing too much talking, not enough listening?
So how might you deepen your own experience of silence and listening? One of the most famous pieces of wisdom from the fourth century desert monastic wisdom is to “Go into your cell and stay there – and your cell will teach you everything.” Your cell is a place without external stimuli where you are forced to go deep – not stay on the surface with comforting distractions. In Matthew 6 Jesus says, “Go into your room and close your door and pray to your Father…”
The great mystery is that God in Christ dwells in the very depths of our souls. But to reach these depths requires silence and disciplined listening. The noises of the world and the clamors of the self must be stilled. But when we practice the presence of God, and become inwardly silent and listen with deep attention, then we too may hear the sound of sheer silence in all its fullness and all its energy – the creative word that gives us life.
In her beautiful and deceptively simple poem “Praying,” Mary Oliver writes:
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
Wonderful! I just realized how much I crave my time of silence each evening after a day at the office. I love to spend a few minutes just appreciating the beauty of nature in solitude and silence. No computer. No phone. No TV. Just trees, flowers, sky and God. Lovely! Thank you for the reminder of the passage from Elijah.
Two thoughts, Rev. Drew. One suggested to me years ago when I was struggling to forgive someone. I was praying” Forgive” this person, but I knew in my heart that I wasn’t forgiving him. The suggestion was to pray for the grace to forgive. For me that worked and has worked at other times too.
I think it was one of the Brothers’ sermons recently: Someone had written in his daybook: Do this, or do that. Then he stopped those ideas to himself and, at 7:00 in the morning in his Daybook, he wrote: ‘God.’
Christina
Always reading SSJE Sermons in my precious quiet time, I was not surprised Brother Geoffrey so comforted my soul with this poignant sermon. Within one of my favorite passages, 1st Kings where we learn God is not in the calamities of the world but in the stillness and silence. Truly that is where I find God. But today, I heard something new and I wonder if anyone else may have sensed a message here illustrating why praying for an earthquake to not occur or a ‘Hurricane’ to not touch my home, is not where God is. For the things of earth are of earth.
The poem at the end is clearly very special. Thank you Brother Geoffrey.
Thank you, Br.Geoffrey, for such a thoughtful and beautifully delivered message to “all who have ears”. Our church is offering opportunities for all to have a place to experience silence; sessions for contemplative prayer, compline, and even a sign on the avenue welcoming the stranger to enter, perhaps light a candle and be still in the beauty of the sanctuary….and know that God is there….because you are.
With gratitude to all at SSJE for the generous sharing of your Peace.
Thank you. I simply lack the discipline in my daily life to seek out silence.
I find I wake earlier in the morning to be able to sit and pray in silence. The darkness before dawn is a quiet “cell” and I cherish it. Thank you for the good homily.
too beautiful for words.
Thank you, I love the way God works to speak to us through people we may never meet. May He bless you in your service to Him
I need silence.
I love silence.
I crave silence.
I’m never grounded without large slices of silence throughout the day.
I learn, really, only through listening, in silence, to God.
I believe that God listens to our prayers. But He does not need people to tell Him what to do. We need to just be quiet and listen.
As I have grown old(er), I have to come to realize that I crave the space of silence to find the calm, the peace, etc. given by God, sometimes in nature, sometimes in quiet rooms. But now, I have begun to learn to create that silence moving from within my mind to within my heart. It’s just a beginning, . . . . Thank you for such a beautiful support of our seeking silence to hear the still, small voice of God.
Dear Brother Geoffrey:
I struggle with:’ God in Christ dwells in the depths of our souls’
And a few lines further on: ‘when we practice the presence of God.’
Sometimes, it seems to me, that Christianity gets very complicated – my prayers, my thoughts, are ‘God.’ I look at the world around me and see it all as God’s creation.
I believe that some of the things that I have experienced in my long life are God-given gifts. They have been unbelievably beautiful. Also given strength to deal with difficult times. Blessings. Christina
Blessings. Christina
When I first came to the monastery I was so deeply grateful for your gift of silence. There were so many people needing so much the silence gave me the stillness I was so desperate for. Later, like a plant yearning for the sun, I would find myself almost leaning towards the monastery. My cue that it was time for another retreat. Thank you so much for that gift.
Dear Brothers – if this was a duplicate from me, it just shows how deeply wonderful to me your words were. I am ‘re-stunned’! thank you. bfl
Dear Br. Tristram – another of your gifts to us – words which give silence, depths, penetration, wonders – silence … thankyou’sl . lasting. barbara frazer lowe
How important it is to “Be still and know that I am God.” Since becoming
a widow and living alone, I find it so much easier to enjoy silence and
truly listening to God. Not to say that I don’t enjoy the T V, the telephone
and computer. But I can turn it off; tune it out, and find a special kind of peace. Thanks for this message.