She is a genius.
She said what I knew instinctively, but from a professional and highly gifted viewpoint.
Her silence is a loss to us all. However, I now understand, especially after the revelations of the past few days, why she enclosed herself in silence.
Her action is the same impulse I have had for years concerning the contemplative life. In silence is wisdom.
One cannot reflect without silence. One cannot hear the delicate, very soft voice of God without silence.
I must go into more silence, which I have known since September of 2012. However, as I am not physically able to join those excellent contemplative nuns, I need to find another place.
The house of prayer in Walsingham may be the answer, if this is God's Will. Pray for me to find this place or another one. Silent places can be anywhere, but must be stable.
The blog will continue, at least for now, but one cannot grow closer to God without giving Him time.
Just as we want to spend time with the person we love the most, phoning them in the day and waiting to see them in quiet excitement, so too we wait for God.
The purification of the senses and the spirit demands silence. One can create a certain amount in one's self, with discipline and grace and carry that silence around with them-the little cell of the mind, as St. Bernard calls it. But, the more, the Presence of God, who tends to speak more and more quietly as we move towards Him into silence, demands silence of a special nature.
We talk too much.
We listen to trivial words too much. We surround ourselves with noise. Satan has created the noisy culture so that we cannot hear God.
We need to move into more silence, or else we shall not be able to persevere in the coming days. Elijah was hiding from one of the worst tyrants in the Old Testament, Jezebel. She was horrid. She was the original wicked witch of the west, or rather, east.
He fled into a cave out of fear, but God called him out in courage and resolve. Do not be afraid. Be careful, but do not be afraid. Elijah had to anoint the real king before he died. Dr. Sanity left when the false king took over. She is in her virtual cave, but not out of fear.
For her, there is nothing left to say.
I am not quite at that point, but almost. The time will come when words will not be necessary.
Ask God to put His words in your heart, in your mind, and in your soul. The still, small voice is God.
1 Kings 19:11-13
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
11 And he said to him: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passeth, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: the Lord is not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake: the Lord is not in the earthquake.
12 And after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air.
13 And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: What dost thou here, Elias? And he answered:
14 With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have destroyed thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
15 And the Lord said to him: Go, and return on thy way through the desert to Damascus: and when thou art come thither, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.