Silence: Its Power and NecessitySample

Silence: Its Power and Necessity

Mark 1:35 - Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed.

Ps.19:14 – Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

St. Anthony, a desert father in Egypt who lived to be 106 years old, said: There comes a time when people will go off their wits (they will go mad), and when they see someone who is not from his mind, they will physically assault that person and say, You are off your mind because you are not like us. In the silence, we often discover our own "madness".

In the silence, God will give wisdom through his Spirit and prepare us to speak. In the silence, God's words will begin to glow like a fiery furnace. It is then that we have to learn to be quiet and keep that fire burning until it is time to talk.

The desert father Arsenius said: I often had to confess things I talked about, but never because I kept silent. Silence must teach us to remain silent. So often people are built up more by our silence than our streams of words. Words born in silence are usually powerful, and few words are often sufficient. We need to develop a new respect for words.

Silence helps us to not lose the fire of God. Silence teaches us to speak. In silence, we meet the Lord Jesus, and his words come alive in our hearts. When we speak, people meet Jesus, the Word.

In silence, I gain strength for the new tasks ahead. Jesus got up early in the morning and went to pray. There, in the silence and communion with his Father, he prepared himself for the sick to come, the demons who confronted him, the conversations with the Pharisees and Scribes, and the training he had to give his disciples.

Silence is not optional and it is a good thing to do. It is indispensable.