THE WISDOM OF SOLITUDE & SILENCE “But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet, everyone—a holy silence. Listen!” Habbakuk 2:20 The Message “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.“ “Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of the town to a lonely place, where he prayed.” (Luke 5:16; Mark 1:35)
Any action of Jesus was preceded by prayer: first he had to be both rested and sure of God's will. Any prayer of Jesus was followed by effective action: preaching, teaching, healing, demonstrating to those with eyes to see the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. The inner quiet that Jesus needed he offers to us. This inner quiet calls up the image of a deep rock pool high in the Blue Mountains, the placid clarity of fresh water, not the fetid stagnation of an old billabong. Inner quiet is no complacent acceptance of fate, no resignation in the face of hardship, no escape from the realities of life; it is a 'still point of the turning world' (T.S. Eliot), a creative and energizing 'contemplation in a world of action' (Thomas Merton). In whatever ways we are called to our Lord's service, release from outer stress and 'inner strife' were never more needed than today. To find and nurture that inner resource of the Spirit is absolutely essential for effective ministry, for basic Christian discipleship. [Let us practice] contemplative prayer: seeking the kingdom within, that state of being where Christ truly dwells in us (2 Corinthians 13:5) That deep stillness, with a place and time uncluttered by physical noise, emotional stress or cerebral musings, is where the Holy Spirit can create, renew, refresh and inspire. Rowland Croucher, Still Waters, Deep Waters
THOMAS MERTON (1915-1968) “Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.” When I am most quiet and most myself, God’s grace is clear, and then I see nothing else under the sun. What else is there for us but to be tranquil and at peace in the all-enchanting wonder of God’s mercy to us? It falls upon this paper more quietly than the morning sun, and then I know that all things, without His love, are useless, and in His love, having nothing, I can possess all things. J III.34–35 The new bells sound wonderful from the woods. St. John’s day—Frater Tarcisius and I walked all the way to Hanekamp’s in the afternoon. Wonderful, quiet little valley! The silent house, the goats in the red sage grass, the dry creek, and Hanekamp’s vineyard.The beautiful silence of the woods on every side! Frater Tarcisius looked about with such reverence that you would have thought he was seeing angels. Later we separated to pray apart in the thinned pine grove on the southeastern hillside. And I could see how simple it is to find God in solitude. There is no one else, nothing else. He is all there is to find there. Everything is in Him. And what could be more pleasing to Him than that we should leave all things and all company to be with Him and think only of Him and know Him alone, in order to give Him our love? To be alone by being part of the universe—fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you do becomes a unity and a prayer. Unity within and