THE POWER OF SILENCE - Notes - PART A1 - SILENCE, GOD'S DWELLING & SOLITUDE

I purchased The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah back in 2017. Even after eight years, its pages - filled with profound wisdom - still wait to be fully read and understood.

I am not sure I will ever truly finish the book, let alone grasp the depth of each insight it offers.

Still, I hope that by taking notes and organizing them thoughtfully, I might begin to better comprehend and absorb the treasures it contains.

I am sharing these notes here, and I hope that the gems noted down may bless you as much as they continue to bless me.

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THE POWER OF SILENCE - NOTES

PART A - SILENCE VERSUS THE WORLD'S NOISE

(A1) Silence, God's dwelling and Solitude

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Without silence, God disappears in the noise.

And this noise becomes all the more obsessive because God is absent.

Unless the world rediscovers silence, it is lost.

The earth then rushes into nothingness.

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Solitude and silence are guests of the soul.

The soul that possesses them carries them with it everywhere.

The one that lacks them finds them nowhere.

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Silence is a word, silence is a thought.

It is a word and a thought in which all words and all thoughts are concentrated.

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We encounter God only in the eternal silence in which he abides.

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God's voice is silent.

Man too, must seek to become silent.

By living with the silent God, and in Him, we ourselves become silent.

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God is silence, and His divine silence dwells in man.

At the heart of man, there is an innate silence, for God abides in the innermost part of every person.

There is no place on earth where God is more present than in the human heart.

The heart is God's abode, the temple of silence.

Nothing will make us discover God better than his silence inscribed in the centre of our being.

If we do not cultivate this silence, how can we find God?

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Divine graces are poured out on man when man listen to and meditate Sacred Scripture in silence.

It is through long hours pouring over Sacred Scripture that we will reach God.

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Solitude is the best state in which to hear God's silence.

Solitude is a state in which man allows himself to be shaped.

Solitude is the mountain that one must climb to find silence.

And yet, the goal of his search is within him.  God's silent presence already dwells in his heart.

The silence we pursue is found in our own hearts and reveals God to us.

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It is not enough to be quiet.

It is not enough to stop the movement of one's lips and the movement of one's thoughts. This is only being quiet.

Being quiet is a condition for silence, but it is not silence.

It is necessary to become silence.

Silence is indispensable if we are to find God.

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Silence is not an absence.  

Silence is the manifestation of a presence, the most intense of all presences.

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The word is not just a sound.

It is a person and a presence.

God is the eternal Word, the Logos. 

St John of the Cross wrote

"The Father spoke on a Word, which was His Son, and this Word He always speak in eternal silence and in silence must It be heard by the soul."

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A human being's own silence allows him to enter into a relationship with the Word that is at the bottom of his heart. 

When we listen in silence; man enters into a silence that is God.

Let us not fear to create silence, within and outside ourselves, if we wish to be able not only to become aware of God's voice but also to make out the voice of others.

Silence is a condition for being present to God, to neighbour and to oneself. 

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