God Is Our True Friend
Over the years I have taken a number of ten day silent retreats. The process takes three or four days to reach a point of equanimity and start to sink deeper into an ocean of silence. For some the silence is a terror that cannot be tolerated and the individual flees back into the chaos of our noisy world.
Silence.
Calm.
An Open Ear.
These words remind me of an instructive voice from a previous epoch:
God is our true friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, of keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us. We know well enough how to keep outward silence, and to hush our spoken words, but we know little of interior silence. (Francois de Fenelon)
Clinging to God reminds us both intellectually and experientially that God reciprocates by holding on to us. It is this two way exchange of clinging and holding that provides the foundation for our restful silence. Such a profound silence will give us something worth saying when our words are finally spoken.
Hi Alan,
An outward silence we can certainly manage. The "inward silence" now that is a real challenge. Learning to silence the inner flow of thoughts relating to daily challenges, memories of time past, the hustle and bustle of the world at large tend to drown out any semblance of inward silence.
However I tend to agree that it would re-energize the world weary traveller!
Thanks for your thoughtful blogs.🙏
Oh what joy I find sitting still until Father speaks. It's hard these days for me, but I encourage myself knowing that He understands and will one day lead me back into quietness.