There has to be enough communication so that silence can be a grace. That kind of silence demands a deeper love, and until that much love is developed, there is no point in pretending that the love is there when it isn't. The justification of silence in our life is that we love one another to be silent together ... In the depths of community life, we realize the grace of being silent together, but we don't arrive at this by excluding others or treating them as objects. It happens gradually as we learn to love ... The need is for a true silence which is alive and which carries a loving presence.
~ from THE SPRINGS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton
Friends, the wise tell us that God abides in silence -- that God speaks in the silent serenity of the heart. Let us not speak of silence; rather, let silence speak to us of God.
Together, let us enter through the door of serenity, the silence of our heart: a heart that is free, peaceful, quiet and calm, a heart that is one ... a heart so large and wide it embraces God of all and the all of God, the God who in silence speaks all languages, the God who in silence speaks in all creatures, the God who in silence speaks one word: the God who speaks of Love.
