Communicating Through Silence
By Frances Forde Plude
We have urged readers to recycle some ideas about how communication works. We have encouraged you to use interactive (two-way) communication in your ministry as our churches struggle to implement the more dialogic (participative) theology of Vatican II. And we have explored a “theology of the image,” allowing us to appreciate video culture as a window into the human heart.
Now let’s go in a new direction, a completely different type of communication: silence. At first, silence may seem to be simply a lack of communication; but that is not true. Mystics show that perhaps the deepest awareness of God’s presence occurs when we stop talking and consciously enter into the silence – where God communicates and we listen.
Pope Paul VI saw youth by the thousands leaving Catholicism to seek gurus in the East. This was ironic because the Catholic Church itself has a rich tradition of contemplation – going back to the early days of the church when men and women went out to the desert to embrace silence and a deep prayer life. The contemplative lifestyle was formalized by St. Benedict and this guides monasticism today. This Pope urged contemplative religious orders to communicate this spirit of silence for our modern age. Building on the ever-popular writings of Thomas Merton, the Trappists developed an approach called Centering Prayer. Key writers on centering prayer include Trappists Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington, along with William Menninger. Pennington’s article in America (February 28, 1987) explains the centering prayer approach and how to do it. When I first read Pennington’s book entitled Centering Prayer I remember feeling: “This prayer of silence is what I’ve been searching for all my life!”
Abbot Thomas Keating noted that this vocation to silence exists among laity; it is not reserved solely for monks and contemplative orders of women. He established Contemplative Outreach, Ltd), which links centering prayer support groups throughout the world. I have found Keating’s book The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel very helpful as a workshop tool and in my own centering prayer practice.
In a world of too much information we must regularly “pull the plug” on all this noise to communicate in silence.
By Suzanne Nelson
Where do people find contemplative silence in today’s world? “Not at church,” I am told.
Most active Catholics have learned that “we are church” and that the celebration of Sunday liturgy is a public work of worship. Most Catholics will also tell you they do not find silence and prayer at Sunday liturgy. We can work at pacing our liturgies better, allowing silent times after the Readings or after Communion, for example.
Many people choose types of relaxation that include silence. I notice how silently people accomplish surfing, shell gathering, ice fishing, and sunset-watching. Some could be taught to listen to God at these times.
When asked during an internet chat “How do you cultivate prayerful silence?” one person said: “I find I have to carry my silence within me.” Others said they find this silence in their car, getting up a bit earlier in the morning, setting aside the same time for prayer daily, or by reading scripture (called lectio divina).
There are over 176,000 sites about Centering Prayer on the internet! In my own parish a centering prayer group has been active for many years. Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration is another effort to recapture a sense of the sacred and a time and space for prayerful silence. This devotion is parish-based and is spreading throughout the country. An internet search yields over 46,000 sites, and many good resources for getting this devotion started in a parish.
New teaching materials help religious educators teach children and teens about prayerful silence. One good adult education program for parents is Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Children: A Review of the Literature.
One fruit of prayerful silence is ordered priorities that lead to service for the sake of the kingdom of God. Distracted thoughts use a lot of energy but have no focus. Regular prayerful silence lets God communicate to us a sense of the grand plan, the finished weaving, the interconnectedness of all things.