Soul Enrichment

I've been reading through Joshua Choonmin Kim's Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Transformation this year. Yesterday I read about the value of silence. Since it tied in so well with the previous post, I thought I'd share it. (After all, why blog your own thoughts when you can just report someone else's?!)

Chapter 30 -- Soul Enrichment

One of the obstacles to our spiritual growth is noise. Beware of noise from the outer world. Also guard against the noise that builds up within.

Where does this inner noise come from? Inner noise stems from worry about worldly things. Worldly things produce what is contrary to God (Romans 8:5-6).

The discipline of silence can still the noise of the world. It can turn us from worldly matters to spiritual ones. It is really a form of repentance.

How do our souls grow? Our souls thrive on silence. When does our spirituality build a deeper root system? When we make space for silence. Our souls are enriched by silence; in the quiet they revel and grow.

Take a look at the natural world and you'll see silence at work. Living things grow silently. Trees put down deeper roots without a sound. Trees bear fruit without the slightest noise. In the ocean deep, hardly a sound is heard.

Silence is mystical. Silence teaches us. A child in the mother's womb can't make sounds but grows in silence. Early in the morning when we wake to hear nature in silence, we grasp the deeper meaning of our lives.

Silence is a time to dump the garbage from our souls. Oh yes, it's there! And silence helps us admit our sins, encourages us to get rid of them.

Quietly, we confess our sins to God. As Proverbs says, "No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, / but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

Silence nourishes meditation on the Word. Our souls grow by digesting the Word. As Matthew says in his Gospel, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

Reading the Word is vital to spiritual growth. When we taste the Word, we feed our souls. But for the souls to grow we must digest God's Word. It is the life blood of our souls. It reaches our souls through the discipline of silence.

In silence the Word takes hold in our hearts. It soaks into our hearts through prayer. Then we understand. As spiritual writer Thomas Moore has said in his book Caring for the Soul, "Through the discipline of silence, we understand and come near the truth."

Understanding links all things together. It connects God and self. It links the past and the present, the present and the future, the present and the eternal until we come to see everything from an eternal vantage point.

Silence is a friend of God. Silence is God's gift to deepen our love and friendship. When we talk a lot, love seems to be absent. But when we come together face to face, we sense a mystical feeling of love.

Be still and know...

St. Cuthbert's Island

Today's reading in Celtic Daily Prayer (the devotional book I've been using for the past 2 & 1/2 years) is entitled "St. Cuthbert's Island." I thought I'd share it, for somewhat obvious reasons!

Aidan Readings: July 23
ST CUTHBERT'S ISLAND
St Cuthbert's Island adjoining the shore of Lindisfarne is a wonderful parable of quiet, for it is always in sight of the main island, and yet for hours and hours at a time it is completely cut off. It seems designed especially to experience a day of solitude, long enough to limit your freedom, but not as inaccessible as the life of the true hermit.
Here Cuthbert, and almost certainly Aidan before him, escaped from the pressures of community and of missions and turned their face towards God.

Thank you, Lord, that you have set aside places,
special trysting places where we can meet with You.
Alistair Eberst

How wonderful it is to talk with God
when cares sweep o'er my spirit like a flood;
how wonderful it is to hear His voice,
for when He speaks the desert lands rejoice.
Theodore H. Kitching

We've all got little cells in our hearts, little hermitages that God wants to fill. For some there's a physical place of silence. It's hard to be silent. It's hard to stop. To know God in the quiet is worth a lot -- it's there we'll get our vision and our peace to come through whatever hits us.

I like that...
Thank You, Lord, for the trysting places.

Abbey of Gethsemani

Last weekend I went on a spiritual retreat. I spent the weekend in silence with God at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery outside of Bardstown, Kentucky. It was great. I'd been wanting to do this for a long time, but I finally made the arrangements and did it.

I had first read about this monastery when I discovered Thomas Merton and read about his story. Merton is a great Christian thinker, and I was blessed by his writings. When I first drove out to Asbury to visit, I remember passing near the Abbey of Gethsemani and recalling that this is where Merton was a monk. I thought it would be great to visit someday.

It was only 75 miles away. I made reservations months in advance, and I drove down Friday after school let out. My goals were just to spend time with the Lord, reconnecting. I felt as if my prayer life was really weak, and I just needed to rekindle my relationship with God. As I drove down to the monastery, I felt giddy.

The monks pray 7 times a day: Vigils (3:15 AM), Lauds (5:45 AM--Communion follows), Terce (7:30 AM), Sext (12:15 PM), None (2:15 PM), Vespers (5:30 PM), and Compline (7:30 PM). The only time we spoke was to pray. When we weren't praying (by we I mean the other retreatants and I), we were free to do whatever we wanted. I read a lot, rested a bit, walked the surrounding grounds, sat and thought, and prayed. The silence wasn't uncomfortable at all. It became like a friend, and the unspoken friendship between the retreatants grew perceptibly as the hours passed. Gestures, looks, and smiles spoke volumes. We knew that we were there for a common purpose: to seek the LORD.

I loved the times of prayer. The phrase that is repeated most often is "Praise the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and forever, the God who was, who is, and who is to come at the end of the ages." Repeat that 60 times in a weekend and it really sinks down into your heart. That's what these monks do. For over 160 years they have been praying and singing praises to God. Each night, while we sleep, they continue to pour forth adoration to God with steadfastness and faithfulness. I respected monks before. Now I know what a great service they perform for the world.

The time that meant the most to me was Saturday night after Vespers. I remained in the chapel, prostrate in the quiet darkness, and turned my heart toward the Lord. It was so sweet. The time flew. I felt as if I could have stayed forever. Such peace.

I hadn't connected like that with God in years. And it wasn't some big spiritual experience that happened. If you had asked me Saturday morning, I would say nothing had happened. But by Saturday afternoon, I realized that I had been with God the whole time. It was just the act of purposefully spending time together that did it. I loved Him, and He loved me.

I haven't blogged in a long time, and I hope to share more about what I learned on this trip. For now, though, it's just good to be writing again.

Praise the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and forever...