Silence (the way)

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my return to posting about Henri Nouwen's 'The Way of The Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.' Let's go back there... quietly.

If you recall from post 1 and post 2, we're talking about "three ways of preventing the world from shaping us in its image and are thus the three ways to life in the Spirit." The last time we covered the first of these three ways (solitude), and this time we're looking at Silence.

First off I want to point out something I don't think most of us realize when talking about silence (at least I didn't): it's not just a lack of talking on our part, or of hearing others talk, but all the other noise in the world (audible AND visual). Think of the number of ads we see and hear, and billboards, street signs, yard signs, church signs, messages written nearly everywhere they can be... not to mention the way algorithms are forced upon us by social media and the like. All of this is thrust at us very intentionally to to try to shape us one way or another. So....

Some of the highlighted parts of the introduction:

• "Silence completes and intensifies solitude." (43)
• "Silence is the way to make solitude a reality." (43)
• "Silence is solitude practiced in action." (44)

In this chapter Nouwen first shows (1) how wordy our world has become, then (2) describes the great value of silence in this wordy world, and finally (3) how silence can be a sign of God's presence in different forms of ministry.

• "...words have lost their creative power." (46)
• "The word no longer communicates, no longer fosters communion, no longer creates community, and therefore no longer gives life. The word no longer offers trustworthy ground on which people can meet each other and build society." (and remember, he said this in 1981!) (46)
• "The Word of God [however] is born out of the eternal silence of God, and it is this Word out of silence that we want to be witnesses." (48)
• "Silence is the home of the word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the word. We can even say that words are meant to disclose the mystery of the silence from which they come." (48)
• "...the word is the instrument of the present world and silence is the mystery of the future world. If a word is to bear fruit it must be spoken from the future world into the present world. The Desert Fathers therefore considered their going into the silence of the desert to be a first step into the future world. From that world their words could bear fruit, because there they could be filled with the power of God's silence." (49)

Three aspects of silence (from the Desert Fathers):

1. Silence makes us pilgrims: "The expression 'To be on pilgrimage is to be silent' expresses the conviction of the Desert Fathers that silence is the best anticipation of the future world." (50)
   
2. Silence guards the fire within: "Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers." (55)
   
3. Silence teaches us to speak: "A word with power is a word that comes out of silence... It is a word that reminds us of the silence from which it comes and leads us back to that silence." (56)

 On the ministry of silence:

• "We are now left with the question of how to practice a ministry of silence in which our word has the power to represent the fullness of God's silence. This is an important question because we have become so contaminated by our wordy world that we hold to the deceptive opinion that our words are more important than our silence. Therefore it requires a strenuous discipline to make our ministry one that leads our people into the silence of God." (58)
• "But isn't the purpose of all ministry to reveal that God is not a God of fear but a God of love? And couldn't this be accomplished by gently and carefully converting the empty silence into a full silence, the anxious silence into a peaceful silence, and the restless silence into a restful silence, so that in this converted silence a real encounter with the loving Father could take place? What a power our word would have if it could enable people to befriend their silence!" (60)
• (Silence and preaching) "Most people who listen to a sermon keep their eyes directed toward the preachers, and rightly so, because he or she asks for attention to the word that is being spoken. But is it also possible for the word to be spoken in such a way that it slowly moves attention away from the pulpit to the heart of the listener and reveals there an inner silence in which it is safe to dwell." (61)
• (Silence and counseling) "...pastoral counseling is the attempt to lead fearful parishioners into the silence of God, and to help them feel at home there, trusting that they will slowly discover the healing presence of the Spirit." (62)
• (Silence and organizing) "...the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence." (63)
• "Silence of the heart is much more important than silence of the mouth." (64)
• "...silence helps us to keep our mind and heart anchored in the future world and allows us to speak from there a creative and recreative word to the present world." (65)
• "...silence is above all a quality of heart that can stay with us even in our conversation with others." (65)
• "...words are the instrument of the present world, but silence is the mystery of the future world." (66)

Whew. There's a lot there. Silence is one of those things that's hard to describe exactly, but you sort of know it when it happens (or something like that). It can't be confused with mere word and sound. It truly is a mystery, and I hope to grasp it... someday. :)