My people will abide in a peaceful habitation ... and in quiet resting places.~Isaiah 32:18

What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love. --St John of the Cross

“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

"In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds." ~ St. John of the Cross

Jesus has things to do, places to go, a Gospel to proclaim. He wants to proclaim it as well through us who have been baptized into Him. We are part of bringing liberty to the captives and glad tidings to the poor. But, we're never going to be able to do that if we're focused on the worldly. So, if we're honest with ourselves, are we being like the people St. Paul is speaking to, caught up in politics ... maybe even Church politics ... and worldly affairs? While things of the earth matter to some degree, they don't matter as much as union with Christ and doing your part in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. For most of us, we have to stop focusing on things outside our control. Let us work to love God and love our neighbor. To do so, let us be like Jesus who often goes off to a deserted place to be with the Father. We too must have this. We too must have our own deserted place, our own monastic cell within our hearts where we escape to often to be with God. We must allow ourselves to be regularly ordered by the God who ordered the universe. Let us practice this more often through personal prayer, small retreats to our hearts deserted place, wherein we can receive spiritual communion. Let us do this as well so God can help us mature spiritually, so He can aid us move from spiritual milk to solid food. For He has work for us to do and we need to be well nourished for what's ahead. Let's work to concentrate on what really matters, intimate relationship with Christ and maturation in the spiritual life. God has work to do, and He wants to do some of it through us. Let us prepare ourselves well. ~ David Hust

"For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."~Isaiah 30:15a

This collapse of the inner life also erodes the ability to discern the action of the Holy Spirit and the will of God in one’s life – for the Spirit’s guiding voice will always remain a still, small one (1 Kings 19:12), loud enough to be perceived, yet soft enough never to compel cooperation. God speaks and directs us, though it happens beneath the surface level, where our minds are occupied by our current moods, emotions, and wants.

https://thosecatholicmen.com/articles/beneath-the-surface-learning-to-recognize-gods-voice/

"A holy silence is one that draws close to God. More to the point, it is one that envelopes us in God. It renders His presence, as it were, tangible. Such a silence is informed by, and, in turn, strengthens, the theological and moral virtues. It is a silence that is not solipsistic, narcissistic, indulgent, or even selfish in the least. It is a silence that is ascetical and attentive to God, without the prideful presumption that God is obliged to “speak” to the soul — not, at least, in an audible or extraordinary way. Such silence is described ably by Robert Cardinal Sarah, on page sixty-one of The Power of Silence:

Silence, man’s effort, runs alongside hope, the theological virtue. In reality, the divine power of the theological virtue lifts and directs the human and ascetical impact of silence. Then a second [virtue, this one a] moral virtue appears: fortitude. Its function is to remove the obstacle that prevents the will from obeying reason. Fortitude is active and takes the offensive. The thing is to apply oneself to cultivating this virtue, which drives back all that could prevent man from living in dependence on God. Silence and hope are two conditions allowing fortitude to find its nourishment.

Through this asceticism of silence, how can we not understand and appreciate better the lights offered by these different Bible verses? “When words are many, transgression is not lacking” (Prov 10:19). “He who guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin” (Prov 13:3). “Whoever uses too many words will be loathed” (Sir [Ecclus] 20:8). “I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter” (Mt 12:36). “Make balances and scales for your words, and make a door and a bolt for your mouth. Beware lest you err with your tongue, lest you fall before him who lies in wait” (Sir 28:25-26 [Ecclus 28:29-30])."

~ Brother Andre Marie

"Sometimes you just have to let things breathe" ~ Season for Love

Take me there

Low Frequency Sound for Fibromyalgia Relief

Soft rain on window

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” ~ Romans 8:26-27

“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.” ― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.” ― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.” ― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Peace of the sea

The Eucharist invites to let ourselves be carried along by the wave of Jesus, to not remain grounded on the beach in the hope that something may come along, but to cast into the deep, free, courageous and united. ~ Pope Francis

Tropical Rain

Inner River

“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.” ~ Henri Nouwen

If you feel that your dreams aren’t coming true, you might think that you need to do more, or to think and strategize more. In fact, what you might need is less—less noise coming to you from both inside and outside—so that you have the space for your heart’s truest intention to germinate and flourish. - Thich Nhat Hanh, in ”Silence"

Pain relief waves

Favorite thunderstorm video

Otium Sanctum

The place is secret,
founded in purity,
cast as Gods love.
It is spirit delicate
as time spilling, sun
drenched, over walls
to flee. Holy leisure
is not for the asking,
but for the loving.
It demands unity.
It listens for God.

Vernon Schmid

Resting Music

... Summer sounds ...

Seek solitude; Be faithful to solitude times; Welcome both self-knowledge and God-knowledge; Learn to waste time with God. (All lovers waste time with each other); Dare to be alone. Be willing to go apart from the crowd and the action, to be called away from the world’s business.

The speaking of the Lord is in the still small voice, and like the dew, His grace is distilled in silence; His Spirit descends –– softly, quietly, in love. (Excerpt, Alistair Begg)

"In the depths of uncertainty we can cling closely to what will always be certain – God with us. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” [Hebrews 13:5]

~ Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens. ~

"Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world." --Oswald Chambers (My Utmost For His Highest)

A song for your heart... and when it is quiet...I'll know what it means and I'll carry you home ....

To communicate we don’t always need to talk.
Can I imagine myself sitting quietly with Jesus?
I looking silently at him and He at me.
How do I feel?

From: SacredSpace.ie

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