“There is nothing so like God in all the world as silence.” Master Eckhart

We know that Jesus often went off alone into desert places to pray. And we Know he often admonished demons to be silent. And he often told those whom he healed to be silent. We also read that after a short conversation with Pilate Jesus became silent. These silences are especially present in Mark’s Gospel. Some have called this the Messianic Secret. As if to say, Jesus did not come out and say who he really was.

St. Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred around 100 CE had this to say about silence: “If we cannot understand the silence of Christ we will not be able to understand his words either.” And I wondered if he means some evidence of the silence of Christ in the Gospels or the fact that we experience silence from God in our own lives.

Ammonas (c.350 CE): “Beloved, my beloved, I have shown you the power of silence, how thoroughly it heals and how fully pleasing it is to God. I have written to you so that you may know that it is by silence that the saints grew, that is was because of silence that the power of God dwelt in them and the mysteries of God were known to them.”


St Benedict:480-543 CE had two words: quies and silentio. The quies is the stillness of the body. And of physical things. (like TV or some uses of the computer) The silentio is about our words and our thoughts. We keep silence so that we Can listen to God, listen to God’s work of love.

"Silence,how thoroughly it heals and how fully pleasing it is to God. I have written to you so that you may know that it is by silence that the saints grew, that is was because of silence that the power of God dwelt in them and the mysteries of God were known to them.”

Many saints speak of the interior silence in which we let go of our wandering thoughts, our worrying about the future, our complaining about the present and our harrowing of ourselves or others about the past. All the “if onlys” that come up should be dropped instantly as totally useless. Just turn to God in prayer – short and intense though not agitated.

Lent is a great time to try to have more silence in our lives. The quiet of less noise and less rushing. The effort to live in the now in our thoughts. the giving of more attention to spiritual reading and less puzzling out of the meaning of life. Taking a little more time to rest in God. Trying to be more assiduous in the practice of Christian Meditation or centering prayer.

Meditation – we say our prayer word in order to let go of our own thoughts and we are silent from them even if they are floating around, so that God will speak to our hearts in the mysterious way of love

Since the unselfishness of human love is always transformative, how much more is God who is love always transformative? The more we are willing to interrupt our wandering thoughts with prayer, the more we realize that the Presence of God is the reality which gives the real meaning,shape and purpose to everything we do. and everything we are.