Silence and Solitude

The practice of Silence and Solitude is very much at the heart of Celtic Spirituality. Frances J. Roberts, author of devotional books writes,

“If I chose to hide you away, it is for a reason.
I have brought you to this place.
Drink in the silence. Seek solitude.

Listen to the silence.

It will teach you. It will build strength
Let others share it with you.
It is little to be found elsewhere.

Silence will speak more to you in a day than the world of voices can teach you in a lifetime. Find silence. Find solitude – and having discovered her riches, bind her to your heart.”

          

Perhaps one of the most well known phrases from the psalms is found in Psalm 46 where we find the succinct words, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Most of us aren’t very good at silence, are we. We surround ourselves with noise – mp3 players, text messages, chatty conversation, TV, CDs. Being silent is difficult, Isn’t it.

But often in the silence, if we can manage to put away all our own words and distractions, the still, small voice of the Spirit of God will break through with a nudge, a prompting, a phrase, an insight, a startling illumination or conviction. And then we will know why silence is so important. 

It is said that effective meditation is the result of three elements: stillness, silence and solitude.

Loneliness is small; solitude is large. Loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. Loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nobody answers; solitude has its roots in the great silence of eternity.

Kent Nurburn in his book Simple Truths says "In solitude silence becomes a symphony. Time changes from a series of moments strung together into a seamless motion riding on the rhythms of the stars. Loneliness is banished, solitude is in full flower, and we are one with the pulse of life and the flow of time. . . .

"As always, look at the world around you. The mountain is not restless in its aloneness. The hawk tracing circles in the sky is not longing for union with the sun. They exist in the perfect peace of an eternal present, and that is the peace that one finds only in solitude. Find this peace in yourself, and you will never know another moment of loneliness in your life."

Sit quietly and read the words of Kathrina von Schlegel 

Be still, my soul; your God will undertake

to guide the future as he has the past;

your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know

his voice who ruled them while he lived below. Amen