The Footsteps of St. Benedict-Framing Prayer 28

St. Benedict's footprints dot the landscape of Europe and America. One can hardly imagine the West without the great abbeys, monasteries, schools, even ruins, which attest to the greatness of this saint's vision.

Behind all the accomplishments lie the footsteps of prayer. One is aware of the Hours kept by all Benedictine monasteries, and there is one example below. Most days in various monasteries are similar, And, remember, it is almost impossible to become holy without a schedule of some sort.

Schedules allow time for God.






Rise: 4:50 a.m.
Matins: 5:15
Lauds: 6:15
Low Mass: 6:50
Prime: 8:00
Lectio Divina: 9:00
Terce, High Mass: 10:00
Study or Work: 11:15
Sext: 12:50 p.m.
Recreation: 2:00
None: 2:35
Manual Labor: 3:00
Vespers: 6:00
Silent Prayer: 6:30
Lectio Divina or Conference: 7:00
Compline: 8:25

Now, what may not be obvious, is that the Benedictine prayer continues throughout the day.  One reason for silence during most of the day is to allow the prayer of the Hours to continue within one while one is working, either cooking, cleaning, gardening, or whatever.

I experienced this in Cobh and in London at Tyburn.

What I find is that the laity seem to clutter their days with too much noise which is not necessary. I do not mean the soft chatter of children, or the noise created by work.

I refer to the television, the radio, or just too much unnecessary talk.

Learning to be more silent can be a challenge for a family, but it is not impossible. Our house growing up was a quiet house. No one yelled from room to room, no one ran in the house, and most of us read at various times during the day.

Ceaseless activity cannot be seen as Godly. One must come to the realization that ceaseless noise comes right from the devil. He wants us to be distracted so that we cannot remain in prayer.

I suggest that the real mark of a prayerful house is that it is muted. 

Pray for this in your families. If you are single, do not waste time.

Learn to carry prayer into every action of your day.

On more on the Benedictine approach to prayer tomorrow.

Choosing Lesser Gods

In my long perfection series, I noted again and again, the God purifies the imagination in the Dark Night. For most of us who go through this process, this means the total giving up of television, movies, and other forms of imaginative creations which take over the place where God wants to meet us in contemplation. I no longer listen to classical music which I love, because it distracts my imagination from God.  I get to much "into " the music. Yes, sometimes classical music and art can lead us to a powerful aesthetic experience and then, into a transcendent experience of God--this has happened to me. But, silence is a better choice for me. Beauty may be found in silence.

I hope you remember my quotation from Thomas Merton. Here is a section of those postings where I shared his great insight on this point....


.. I am certainly no judge of television, since I have never watched it. All I know is that there is a significantly general agreement, among men, whose judgement I respect, that commercial television is degraded, meretricious and absurd. Certainly it would seems that TV could become a kind of unnatural surrogate for contemplation: a completely inert subjection to vulgar images, a descent to a sub-natural passivity rather than an ascent to a supremely active passivity in understanding and love. It would seem that television should be used with extreme care and discrimination by anyone who might hope to take interior life seriously.  from Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

I wrote about this years ago on this blog. I quoted Merton from this source:  Cistercian Studies Quarterly, "Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)", Vol 19, 1984, notes on pp. 269-270, 

God has given each human being the capacity of passive contemplation. This capacity is for God alone, for the creation of the space which He fills in the Unitive State.

Being passive before the tv fills that space with sewage and deadens the capacity for real contemplation. Worse than that, one becomes contemplatively united with whatever is on the tv through this passive contemplation, which brings one into "mystic attraction until one is spellbound in a state of complete union."
Merton states that either God or tv takes over the "will on a temporal or material level...the other...is the nadir of intellectual and emotional slavery."

Satan knows this and uses tv for his grooming of damned souls.

To move from meditation, to active contemplation, to passive contemplation, is the call of each Catholic.

Are you clogging up the very gift God has given you by passive contemplation of tv? More on this in these posts.

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton

11 Sep 2012

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton. Posted by Supertradmum. As a foreigner in a foreign land, I shall not be able to talk about 9-11 as I would want to do today. But, I was in Canada on 9-11. Father Z has part of ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Wow, television is the enemy of contemplation

22 Jan 2013

We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted. I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now, I have come across a startling one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Wise words from a Carmelite on a bus

27 Oct 2014

He also mentioned Thomas Merton, who I had just put back on the blog this morning. Synchronicity. One more point this good priest made was that we all need to think about death. Again, synchronicity considering I just wrote ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Mystic Attention-Where Is Yours Located?

27 Oct 2014

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the .

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Great Evil of Entertainment

21 Nov 2013

I have shared on this blog the great insight of Thomas Merton on the biggest danger of television-that the passivity which one approaches tv is the aspect, the gift of the mind and soul for passive prayer. The television takes ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Still Confusion on Prayer

10 Aug 2014

Re meditation, is there room for 'quieting' the mind, stopping the mental chatter and allowing God into the stillness? are Thomas Murton's thoughts upon meditation in Western Christianity agreeable with Catholic Christian ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Testing Two Perfection Series VIII Part XXXII

09 Jan 2015

... anonymous contemplatives in the city, going about their daily tasks? 9 January 2015 at 17:31 · Supertradmum said... Mary Ann, actually, the reference I know is from Thomas Merton, but Maritain may have said this as well.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Repeat Post-Noise is Rebellion

28 Nov 2013

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Repeat Post for A Friday

29 Nov 2013

As Thomas Merton notes, we are geared to passive intake of knowledge, which happens at the contemplative stage, but if our minds are full of goo from the television, we shall never learn either meditation or contemplation.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Perfection Series VIII Part XV The Intellect and Prayer

07 Dec 2014

Remember the posts on Thomas Merton's brilliant insight into the evil of television? Without a strong intellect, one cannot properly deal with the bombardment of images, good or bad, in this hyperactive world. Even to get on ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: A Serious Subject and a Nod to Those ...

25 Jan 2013

Cardinal Bernadine of Chicago, Thomas Merton (in a yoga pose), Martin Luther King, or homosexual "saints" such as Mychal Judge, Mark Bingham, Harvey Milk, or such people as Oscar Romero, John Donne, We-wha the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Mouse in The Darkness

11 Nov 2014

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Seeds-Contemplation-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811217248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415803141&sr=8-1&keywords=merton+contemplation. 12 November 2014 at 14:39 · Supertradmum ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: To Tyburn

11 Sep 2012

... Father Mark "Vultus Christi" Kirby's first Oblate, I have to say my Benedictine soul is envious. Please know that you're in my prayers, and I'll be asking St. Scholastica and St. Thomas More for their intercession on your behalf.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

The reason I return to these thoughts today has to do with the fact that I had a discussion with a young person last night on computer games. This young woman told me that she did not have any clue about spiritual warfare and was curious about my ability to see clearly the spiritual warfare around me. She and I had discussed this before, but this was the first time I made the connection with Thomas Merton's insight and her life choices.

As the great teachers of prayer tell us, to give up the passivity of our minds to another source rather than God means that we give up discernment, a gift given to us in confirmation, connected to the gift of knowledge. Many things can interfere with this gift but too much entertainment, and the type of entertainment can clog the imagination, stopping the use of the gift so needed in today's world.

Note the dates on the posts above. I have tried to point out the need for the clarification of the imagination for years. There must be an unclogging of the imagination which has been purposefully "clogged up". 

Silence and passivity before God must be priorities in our lives now. How can we hear God and see with His Mind if we are not cooperating with the gift of knowledge?

My young friend is not convinced. She and I have discussed this subject for a long time  But, she cannot yet make the connection I have tried to explain to her. Perhaps readers who "get" this can pray for her and those other young people she plays games with online. All these people in her group of gamers are good people, several are Catholic-- they are in their twenties and thirties, but God is calling them to a greater use of their imaginations than gaming---contemplative prayer.

How can one come into union with Christ when the imagination is full of lesser gods? 

UPDATE: Since we spoke, the young woman emailed me to say she has given up playing computer games. I am truly grateful to God for this grace. Please continue to pray for her in her pursuit of prayer. This is a huge turn-around! She will keep me posted on her efforts of prayer. 

Framing Prayer 3

I repost articles which need to be the foundation for any manner of prayer--silence and schedules.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Perfection Part Eleven -Silence

Posted by Supertradmum

On Perfection continued...

These posts seem to be popular, so I shall do two today. It is Lent, and such meditations may be helpful for some, including myself.

The overlap of the Carmelite, Benedictine and Dominican spiritual ways can be clearly seen in the the call to some silence during the day. Now, as busy lay people, we must create these little shells of silence so that we can hear the Voice of God, the small, still Voice. Without silence, one is not in touch with one's own soul or with God.

I have known extremely busy people. Not only are these people busy during the day, but when they come home at night, they have the television on until they go to bed. From the minute they wake up in the morning, when they turn on the radio, read the paper, run about doing necessary or unnecessary activities, these Catholics are never silent. I would be exhausted without silence.

If I do not have time in the morning and in the evening, at the very least, for reading Scripture, one of the Hours, such as Vespers, I cannot act as a serene, human being. Silence gives me grounding for the entire day, and if I practice silence, it can remain within me for the entire day. This is the beauty of silence, it becomes a wellspring of life within us, overcoming other noises and confrontations.

Silence breaks down anxiety and fear. The most fearful people I know cannot bear silence. They must keep moving, keep doing, even if they are retired. The rhythm of life which includes silence gives a richness to one's existence and keeps one from falling into superficiality.

Why some people are afraid of silence is that they are afraid of suffering. In silence, I see my sins, my failings, my failures. In silence, I face the need for conversion daily. In silence, I meet God, who is All Goodness, All Innocence, All Perfection.

Only in Faith can one approach silence, as in silence one meets the God of Mercy and Forgiveness.

I have talked with friends as to how to create more silence in their day. Some want to do so and some want to keep running away from God, which to me, is running away from Love.

Silence is never boring, as some may believe, unless one thinks God is boring. The Infinite is so beyond me, that only is silence can I meet God.

We are fast approaching Holy Week, when in the Passion of Christ, we see Him keeping silent before both the Sanhedrin and Herod. Christ said little in front of Pilate, but He was calling Pilate to Himself, and was trying to make the Roman see. Christ remained silent because He did not need to defend Himself. He is God. He is Man. He stood in silence, in Perfection, and those who judged Him unfairly could not see the Silence which stood before them, as they had never met Him in silence. Those who meet God, know Him when they see Him.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Sanctity and Schedules

Posted by Supertradmum

Now, a disclaimer. As an INTJ, I am scheduled. I get up at the same time everyday and I have regular habits of eating, praying, writing.

I do most of my work in the morning.

When I was in Ireland, living alone for months and months, I could pray four to six hours a day, as I was living in silence and solitude.

I love this.

But, even though it was just me, I was scheduled.

Daily Mass same time, prayers, writing, etc. only interrupted by parties at night in the flats next door, or personal illness.

Same in Malta, even though for most of the time I was sharing a flat with one other person. Daily morning Mass, prayers, breakfast, and so on....Dinner was always about the same time as well.

Recently, living with other people without schedules, people who are not INTJs but ESFPs or variations of unscheduled types, I am observing something which the ancient fathers understood. One good thing about living in community is that those who naturally gravitate towards schedules can help those who do not.

Those who are more easy-going can help with the obsession some may have with schedules.

It is much harder for those without schedules to become holy. Going from one activity to another as these present themselves to the mind does not allow for prayer or reflection. Merely reacting to things rather than planning or reacting to situations on impulse are methods of living which impair the way of holiness.

Holiness demands scheduling.

Why? 

Prayers, the reading of Scripture, the reading of holy books, daily Mass, or Adoration demand planning.

Those who have never had schedules, or who have avoided scheduling do not plan formation into their days.

Every semester when I was teaching college, the first thing I did was introduce my students to Time Management Skills.

I would, in some extreme cases, find up to 40 wasted hours in one week of 168 hours. I would mostly find between 17-27 wasted hours, enough time for my students to really study. They all had too much "down time" or just wasted time.

Waste is a sin.

Wasting time can create a habit of avoiding God and holiness.

Wasting time can lead one to hell.

A few days ago, I was speaking with a person who use to read the Scriptures daily for at least a half-hour.

He no longer does this. He is "too busy", "too tired".

He works, and he works hard, but his home life is not scheduled and never has been. He goes out a lot.

I see many, many elderly people out and about here-and they have lively social lives. There is nothing wrong with that, but one must face preparation for death.

Sanctity must be a cooperation between work and grace. Without a schedule, it is hard, perhaps impossible to find out who one is and who God is.

Schedule.

The Imperative of Silence: Noise is rebellion

13 Feb 2013

While in the monastery last year, I lived with the nuns in the silence of the day. I have tried to cooperate with grace and cultivate an interior silence outside the convent. Some of the great Benedictine writers have distilled ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Silence is a Necessity, not a Luxury

19 Feb 2012

To live in silence is a gift not to be taken for granted. Silence makes us face ourselves, our sins and failings, our lack of charity. On the positive side, silence enables us to have a relationship with God. Relationships take time ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Missing Element of Prayer-Silence

08 Jul 2012

“It was not until 1973, when we began our daily Holy Hour that our community started to grow and blossom... In our congregation, we used to have adoration once a week for one hour, and then in 1973, we decided to have ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

On The Constant, Quiet Yes, And The Constant, Silent Love

11 Aug 2013

In this state, prayer and times outside of prayer merge into one state of being; but one must either be in actual silence, or create silence in the mind and heart. The saying yes then becomes automatic, as one can hear God ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: God is in the details

17 Jun 2015

This is one reason why scheduling must be part of the growth in holiness. Without scheduling, one cannot be faithful, but merely act in spontaneous or knee-jerk reactions to events, things, and people. Scheduling allows ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Mystic Attention-Where Is Yours Located?

Several commentators have asked me how one "hears" the Lord. Discernment takes time, but mostly, silence. I repeat a post and rewrite some helpful hints. Simply put, you will not be able to hear God unless you give Him time to speak to you in the quiet of your mind and soul.

In the long perfection series, I have quoted the great saints and Doctors of the Church concerning the levels of perfection, and at all these stages, one needs to make time for God.

The noise and chaos even in the political arenas of the Church cause us all great distraction.

Again, I list things Catholics must do to become perfect.

One, simplify one's life and the lives of those around you. Do less, be quiet more.

Two, never watched TV and select what news sources which you read daily. Three or four online sources a day, read briefly, would be plenty for the head of the family.

Three, set at least an hour a day aside for silent prayer, perhaps beginning with meditating on the Scriptures.

Four, Blessed Paul VI asked the laity to say at least part of the Divine Office. These prayers only take minutes and can be done on the bus or train if one is commuting. Sadly, too many Americans are forced to drive, which takes away from reading and praying time.

Five, say the rosary daily, and this is something one can do in the car on the way to work. There are many mp3s and CDs for such meditation. The family rosary is the best form of this prayer, imo.

Six, pray as a family daily, even if only for fifteen minutes together in the evening and, better yet, in the morning as well.

Seven, learn to quiet the mind. One cannot hear God is one's mind is full of junk and goo from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I repeat Thomas Merton's comment on contemplation, which follows meditation. Look at all the references to this in the past almost two years.

The Imperative of Silence: Noise is rebellion

13 Feb 2013

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Repeat Post for A Friday

29 Nov 2013

As Thomas Merton notes, we are geared to passive intake of knowledge, which happens at the contemplative stage, but if our minds are full of goo from the television, we shall never learn either meditation or contemplation.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Be watchful, but do not watch Hollywood...

05 Dec 2013

Walker Percy, read my comments in two posts on Thomas Merton's insight into how tv takes over our capacity to be in contemplation of God. Passivity given over to evil will change us, sadly, to someone God did not intend.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: To Tyburn

11 Sep 2012

... Father Mark "Vultus Christi" Kirby's first Oblate, I have to say my Benedictine soul is envious. Please know that you're in my prayers, and I'll be asking St. Scholastica and St. Thomas More for their intercession on your behalf.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton

11 Sep 2012

Figures for an Apocalypse by Thomas Merton. Posted by Supertradmum. As a foreigner in a foreign land, I shall not be able to talk about 9-11 as I would want to do today. But, I was in Canada on 9-11. Father Z has part of ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Wow, television is the enemy of contemplation

22 Jan 2013

We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted. I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now, I have come across a startling one ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: The Great Evil of Entertainment

21 Nov 2013

I have shared on this blog the great insight of Thomas Merton on the biggest danger of television-that the passivity which one approaches tv is the aspect, the gift of the mind and soul for passive prayer. The television takes ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

The Imperative of Silence: Noise is rebellion

13 Feb 2013

Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Repetition is a good way to learn.

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Wow, television is the enemy of contemplation

We only have so much time...watch the video here and the next one posted.

I have read all of Thomas Merton's books many, many years ago but I have missed some of his articles. Now, 

I have come across a startling one which I missed so long ago and I hope this helps.

If you can find Cistercian Studies Quarterly, "Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII)", 

Vol 19, 1984, notes on pp. 269-270, 

You will read that the monk compared television watching as a caricature of contemplation. 

This is earth-shaking. I knew that television interfered with silence and solitude, and that it is a brain-washing technique, but to read that it creates the same dynamic as contemplative prayer reveals the real evil.

Merton's points are these: one is passive and takes in uncritically what is given on the television; one is 

receptive to all that is there before one; one become inert and "yields" to  the "mystic attraction until one is 

spellbound in a state of complete union."

This is terrifying. And, I know this to be true. In families where there is tv, there is no peace or reflection. In 

families where there is no TV, there is quiet.

Merton goes on to write that television is the opposite of contemplation, which breaks with sensuality, noise, 

the senses in general, and the "will on a temporal or material level...the other...is the nadir of 

intellectual and emotional slavery."

I visited the first house I have been in for a long time where television is on for hours and hours. People 

actually "shh" people into silence for stupid programs, like variety shows. I was not only amazed, but realized 

how this slavery is so real.

That family does not pray together and several members have fallen away from the Church. There is no adult 

reading concerning the Faith and no attempts at Lectio Divina. Up to six hours of television watching cloud the judgments and movements of those children as well who watch it.

Please, parents, stop watching television and start praying.

Otherwise, you cannot even begin the road to perfection.

P.S. Let me add that the faculties of the soul and mind which should be used for contemplative prayer are 

being seized by television. This is the point of Merton's warning......Computer games do the same thing.

Another Timely Repeat

 

Sunday, 30 December 2012

 Sunday Sermon

Posted by Supertradmum

Today, it is more important than ever that I shall my Sunday sermon experience. The priest who said the Mass at St. John's Co-Cathedral noted that today, on the Feast of the Holy Family, that parents should make the home a place of  (GET READY FOR THIS) silence and composure.

I could not believe it, but was so delighted with his admonition, that I think I wished I had the computer out taking notes.

The Canon stated that the family must be a place which is conducive to the growth of the Catholic Faith.

Wow. And, this is so true. That, unless the Faith is preserved and encouraged in the family, it will die.

Not only is prayer important, and the sacramental life essential, but the entire atmosphere should allow for reflection.

His ideas fit neatly into the post from earlier today wherein I stressed that the laity must also pursue perfection as well as the religious person. We cannot believe the lies of some of the clergy from the past 50 years, a Siren's call which allowed the laity to be content with a second-class citizenship of holiness. This attitude, so often given in the Confessional,  (not by the excellent priests in Bayswater, by the way, who are great). That priests have encouraged sins, such as contraception, is documented and witnessed by some many of the laity. One cannot be holy and commit mortal sin.

The Canon this morning pointed to this haven of a home of silence and composure. What does this mean in practical terms for us?

One, simplifying life. The kids do not have to do everything.

Two, simplifying life. You do not have to own everything or have the perfect living room or state-of-the-art kitchen.

Three, simplifying life. Mom stays at home and you all take a lower standard of living.

Four, being orthodox in your beliefs; that is, conforming your minds, hearts and souls to the Church.

Five, not having a television, or at least, restricting viewing. We did not have one in my little family and we learned to have times of silence.

Six, why silence? One cannot hear God, nor experience the movements of the Holy Spirit in noise.

Seven, why composure? Anger and hatred, rudeness and lack of manners have no place in the home. The world needs yet more gentlemen and gentle ladies. Composure in a home creates an atmosphere of peace so that children may grow up in respect and love. Noise is not respectful.

That this priest could see the problem is a grace for us and him. Let us all pray how to make our homes places of silence and composure so that the children can learn to hear God and not the noise of the world.

St. John the Baptist went into the desert. So did Christ and St. Paul. Our homes can be "desert homes".

Create a place where holiness and perfection can take root and grow.

Noisy Night, Unholy Night

Christ came to us in the silence of the night. We sing Silent Night, Holy Night.  Christ comes to us daily in silence. Do we meet Him in silence, or does He come and not find any, and leaves us to our noise?

Christ will not force Himself upon us. He will not come if our hearts, minds, and souls are full of junk. Noise is junk

The hymn provides us with a great lesson in prayer. Without silence, we hear only ourselves, and the noise of the world. Christ cannot come into a noisy mind or noisy heart. 

Listening to Catholics in the neighborhood talk about vacations, shopping, raises, money, investments, divorces, gossip is hard to avoid this time of year....I may go hide in the basement. Why do people talk about trivia?  Why cannot people be silent? Are they afraid of silence?

I retreat to my little cell I am working on in my heart, soul, mind...

Silence is a gift, so if you have it, do not ignore the beauty and grace therein. I am convinced that hell and purgatory are noisy.

Do not squander the gifts when you are given these.

If you are given silence, cherish it.

I am thinking of dear St. Catherine again--create a cell in your mind, heart and soul to which you can go.

1. Let all mortal flesh keep silence, 
 and with fear and trembling stand;
 ponder nothing earthly-minded, 
 for with blessing in his hand, 
 Christ our God to earth descendeth, 
 our full homage to demand. 

2. King of kings, yet born of Mary, 
 as of old on earth he stood, 
 Lord of lords, in human vesture, 
 in the body and the blood; 
 he will give to all the faithful 
 his own self for heavenly food. 

3. Rank on rank the host of heaven 
 spreads its vanguard on the way, 
 as the Light of light descendeth 
 from the realms of endless day, 
 that the powers of hell may vanish 
 as the darkness clears away. 

4. At his feet the six-winged seraph, 
 cherubim, with sleepless eye, 
 veil their faces to the presence, 
 as with ceaseless voice they cry: 
 Alleluia, Alleluia, 
 Alleluia, Lord Most High!

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/03/perfection-part-nine-silence.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-constant-quiet-yes-and-constant.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/02/give-up-noise-for-lent-and-here-is-how.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-silence-and-false-wisdom.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-listening-to-god.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/repeat-post-noise-is-rebellion.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-inner-life-bombarded.html

Repeat Post-Noise is Rebellion

While in the monastery last year, I lived with the nuns in the silence of the day. I have tried to cooperate with grace and cultivate an interior silence outside the convent. Some of the great Benedictine writers have distilled Benedictine's writings. The great saint is very strict on silence. Here are some points.

1) Silence involves a "radical renunciation", as one is renouncing self and others in order to be silent.

2) Noise is "rebellion" and the author of noise is the evil one. Noise is rebellion because one is filling up the void in one's spirit which is necessary for God to fill. Noise does not merely distract one from God, but actually makes one closed to God's working in one's spirit.

3) There is virtue in refraining from giving one's opinion. There is virtue is listening to opinions. Not all knowledge is equal in value and, in fact, most of our knowledge is not necessary to our salvation. Reality shows on television, for example, merely clog our time and our ability to hear God speak in the quietness of our hearts.

4) St. Benedict states that even excellent conversation about spiritual things should be avoided, if possible. One can get too much information and input without processing this information in the heart and mind and soul.

5) Silence allows for this processing and for healing. Without silence, the deep parts of our spirit cannot be reached and we go through life unnecessarily burdened with the past.

When I was in Ireland, I was burdened by the number of people who live in the past. One attractive lady told me that she would never marry an Irishman who lived in the past, and that so many do. Why? Too much talking and too much activity stops healing.

6)When we talk, say the Benedictines, we lose focus. How true. Focussing on God takes energy. When we talk, we dissipate that energy. We lose ground in our journey towards God.

7) And, this is so important--we need to feel and sense the VOID in us. Many people keep too active and too noisy in order to fill up the voids in themselves. The opposite must be true in order to gain heaven. We must face all the voids and let God enter into those holes in our lives. Firstly, only He can satisfy the longings of our hearts and, secondly, only He can heal those causes of the voids, some of which are sins.

8) Lay people ask me frequently, how can I have more silence? Here are the answers: a) do less, simplify your lives; b) do not have a television or a radio, or if you do, keep them only for emergencies;  remember St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's vision of the streets being vacant in the villages and families being inside staring at black boxes, as if mesmerized. Remember what Thomas Merton said, which I have quoted here before on this blog that television is the opposite of contemplation. And that the very energies of passivity which most men use in watching television are the very energies which God gave us for contemplation. Watching television, simply, is idolatry.

More next post...

and thanks to my Benedictine mentors for these thoughts..........