Interrupting the Silence

Category: Asceticism

  • Love Could Not Bear That

    Love Could Not Bear That

    Over the last week the many statements, opinions, and responses to the bombing in Boston have been broad, varied, and filled with emotion. They expressed, appropriately so, shared pain, sorrow, grief, and anger. They offered gratitude, pride, and support for the courage, compassion, and love shown by the many heroes who responded and cared for Read more

  • Interruptions

    “A brother came and stayed with a certain solitary and when he was leaving he said: ‘Forgive me, Father, for I have broken in upon your Rule.’ But the hermit replied, saying: ‘My Rule is to receive you with hospitality and to let you go in peace.’” – Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, Read more

  • Self-denial is More than Just Saying, “No”

    One of the traditional Lenten practices is self-denial. Often this leaves us asking the question, “What should I give up for Lent?” The answers vary – candy, bread, wine, shopping, blogging…. We endure, for God’s sake, forty days of self-denial. We give up some ordinary thing or activity and with the celebration of Easter we Read more

  • Taking second place.

    “If we live in a constant spirit of repentance and self-condemnation we will automatically have good relations with our brethren. When Father Sophrony visited Serbia, he heard an Abbess give a word to her nuns and he transmitted it to us with great pleasure. She said to them, ‘Wherever you go and whatever you do, Read more

  • St. John of the Cross on “Our Most Important Task”

    “Our most important task consists in remaining silent before this great God, silent with our desires as well as with our tongue. He understands only one language, that of silent love.” – St. John of the Cross in a letter to a Carmelite nun Related post: The Feast of St. John of the Cross – Read more

  • Falling Up – St. John Climacus

    It seems to me that those who have fallen and are penitent are more blessed than those who have never fallen and who do not have to mourn over themselves, because through having fallen, they have pulled themselves up by a sure resurrection…. Nothing equals the mercy of God or surpasses it. To despair is Read more

  • Abba Poeman on Silence

    Abba Poeman said… A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent; that is, he says nothing that is not profitable. (p. 171) If you are silent, you will Read more

  • Solitude for Ourselves And Others Revisited

    In response to my recent post, Solitude for Ourselves and Others, a reader commented, …there is a particular radio talk show that i frequently listen to in which the host advocates a meditation exercise called “be still and know”…his listeners regularly call into the show to tell of their experiences while trying the exercise and Read more

  • Solitude For Ourselves And Others

    Jung recounts a story of a clergyman who had been working fourteen hours a day and was suffering from emotional exhaustion. Jung’s advice was that he should work eight hours a day, then go home and spend the evening alone in his study. The clergyman agreed to follow Jung’s advice precisely. He worked eight hours, Read more