#56 Interior Silence

CHRISTIAN MEDITATION REFLECTIONS #56 09-19-16

INTERIOR SILENCE

Reflections on John Main and Laurence Freeman’s Christian Meditation Lectures  

Presented by The World Community for Christian Meditation  

www.wccm.org or www.wccm-usa.org

Mary Sargent

“Now, my sisters, you will go to the chapel for your last prayers before you enter our blessed community.  Tomorrow is the day.  You will pray for the help you need, each one speaking to God in her own way.  Ask Him now to give you the things of the spirit. Ask Him in silence for strength in the practice of silence.  Remember interior silence is the very marrow of perfection as told in our Holy Rule.”  “My Waterloo, Gabrielle said again to herself.  But I’ll smother every voice that talks back to destroy my inner quiet.”  (Excerpts from the book The Nun’s Story by Kathryn Hulme, 1956).

Interior Silence is at the heart of Christian Meditation. It is essential. We cannot listen for God’s voice and speak at the same time.  Or listen for God while listening to the radio or the voice on the telephone.  The still small voice doesn’t even attempt to compete with the boom-box clatter of this noisy world.  So how do we clear our minds of the constant barrage of thoughts, noises, images and every form of distraction in order to have Interior Silence within?  After many years of meditation, the answer is so simple I cannot believe it took me so long to give it a try.  We ask. We ask God to help us meditate.  We ask Him to show us how to clear our minds now and to be ready for Interior Silence and available to Him for whatever He wants to say to us now.

“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will

find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.

 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks

finds. To him who knocks it will be opened” –  Matthew 7:7-8

The first thing to do is decide that you want to meditate and open yourself totally to God now.  (Thought)  Then say it out loud or silently in your mind words like:  “Christ, I want to hear you and I want your help now with clearing away the thoughts of my mind for meditation.” (Word)  Then you listen and wait. (Deed)  Thought, word and deed is how we create the lives we want.  This is how we create our meditation with Christ.  Sometimes, we get so hung up on techniques that we forget the really basic things like  asking for what it is we want.  Most of the time, we negatively presume that whatever it is we won’t get it anyway, so we don’t even bother asking.  The next meditation session, give it a try.  Ask God for help with meditation.  See what happens.  Stay on the pilgrimage.  Keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking.