We have been silent. My mother is gathering small pine cones. We cross a wooden bridge and look down at the water. The mud hens come toward us, dragging a ripple of light across the water. Never in my life have I brought anyone to this sacred place. I have come here for its silence, early in the morning. And she, for the first time in our life together knowing exactly what I need, enters with me in silence.
Individuals live, as in a cell, in the narrow world of the words they utter -- every individual and every group. Words are no longer bridges linking the one to the other. Speech which is not heard only intensifies isolation and increases the babel of tongues. the clever ones profit by this. Less and less a helpful servant and more and more an instrument of propaganda, speech has become the vehicle for uneasy consciences. Words must be purified in a redemptive silence if they are to bear the message of peace ... For, a soul gathered in silent worship is never alone with God. It is always in communion with the soul of all other worshippers; its plunges it into that inward light which lightens every person."
~ from GOD IS SILENCE by Pierre Lacout with thanks to Donald and Lesley Holmes
In silence which is active, the
Inner Light begins to glow -- a
tiny spark.
By an attention full of love,
we enable the Inner Light to
blaze and illuminate our dwelling
and to make of our whole being
a source from which this Light
may shine out.
~ from GOD IS SILENCE by Pierre Lacout with thanks to Donald & Lesley Holmes
