S is for Silence.

Our guest author today is Father Paul Wharton.  
There is an ancient story in the East which tells that there was a wall of mystery. The tradition was that whenever anyone tried to climb upon the wall to look at the other side, instead of coming back he smiled and jumped over and never came back again.

So the people of that country became very curious to know what mystery lay behind that wall.
They thought they would arrange something so as to pull the person back when he looked at the other side of the wall and wished to go there.

When the next person tried to climb upon the wall, curious to see what was on the other side, the people who saw him climb put seven chains on his feet and held him so that he would not go over. When he looked at the other side he too was delighted with what he saw and he smiled.

Those standing at their side, curious to know what he had to say, pulled him back, but, to their great disappointment, wen he came back they found that he had lost his speech.

The mystery of the whole life has a great charm.
Every soul is curious about it, but when one wants to explain the mystery of life words are not adequate.

From The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan


The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word He speaks always in eternal silence,
and in silence must it be heard by the soul. – St John of the Cross

The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to enter into it, to become silent, to become the silence.
The purpose of meditation and the challenge of meditation is to allow ourselves to become silent enough
to allow this interior silence to emerge. Silence is the language of the spirit. – John Mains in Word into Silence

We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence.
See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. – Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Be still and know I am God. Psalm 46:10

Be still and know I am God.
Be still and know I am
Be still and know I
Be still and know
Be still and
Be still
Be

Source of story HERE

[Father Paul Wharton has been a priest in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston (West Virginia) for 29 years.  He has a blog on spirituality entitled “Hearts on Fire” that can be located HERE . In it he shares stories, poems, prayers, videos, songs, scriptures, quotations, etc. in the hopes something a viewer reads may kindle his or her heart as happened with the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus.  Hearts on Fire also includes suggested reading – articles and books – as well as some of his own writing and recent homilies he has preached.]