THE POWER OF SILENCE - Notes - PART A4 - EXTERIOR & INTERIOR SILENCE
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 desire to see God is what urges us to love solitude and silence.
For silence is where God dwells.
He drapes Himself in silence.
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The experience on an interior life and an intimate, loving relationship with God is indispensable for those who seek true happiness.
It is important to be silent everyday so as to determine the outlines of one's future action.
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EXTERIOR SILENCE
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In every day life, exterior silence is necessary.
Thomas Merton wrote in The Sign of Jonas (I have paraphrased for easier reading):
Silence is not a virtue. Noise is not a sin.
But the turmoil and confusion and constant noise of modern society are... the expression of the world's godlessness, its despair.
A world of propaganda, of endless argument, vituperation, criticism, or simply of chatter, is a world without anything to live for.
We who associate ourselves with that kind of noise, who enter into the Babel of tongues, become to some extent exiles from the city of God.
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By living in a world of noise and superficiality, we provoke God's disappointment, and we cannot fail to hear the sadness and complaints of his heart.
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Thomas Merton continues:
Those who love God should attempt to preserve or create an atmosphere in which He can be found.
Christians should have quiet homes.
Modern society can no longer do without the dictatorship of noise.
Let those who can stand a little silence find other people who like silence and create silence and peace for one another.
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INTERIOR SILENCE
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Interior silence is the end of judgments, passions, and desires.
Once we have acquired interior silence, we can transport it with us into the world and pray everywhere,
The life of silence must be able to precede the active life.
Man controls his hours of activity if he knows how to enter into silence.
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The silence of everyday life is an indispensable condition for living with others.
Without the capacity for silence, man is incapable of hearing, loving and understanding the people around him.
Charity is born of silence. It proceeds from a silent heart that is able to hear, to listen, and to welcome.
Silence is a condition for otherness and a necessity if one is to understand himself.
Without silence there is neither rest nor serenity nor interior life.
Silence is friendship and love, interior harmony and peace.
Silence and peace have one and the same heartbeat.
The most beautiful things in life take place in silence.
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