GO FOR "THE SILENCE" BE STILL . . .

In the Christian Tradition

"Be still and know that I am God"

 Ps 46:10.  "Centering Prayer" has a long history in the Christian tradition and is also called "Contemplative Prayer / The Prayer of the Heart / The Jesus Prayer."  Many lay persons long held the belief that "contemplative prayer was only for priests, monk and nuns. Thomas Merton coined this phrase and used this to describe this prayer/meditation in modern language.  Where the biblical terms of "spirit", "heart", and/or "apex of the soul" Meister Echart's spoke of "going to one's center and passing through that center into the center of God.  His favorite expression was "the ground of the soul" where one also meets "the ground of God." The Carthusians and Cistercians used this form of prayer (meditation) as well as the early Fathers and Mothers of the Church in all periods of history. 

In the Hebrew Tradition

In the Hebrew tradition meditation is very similar and is believed to be traced back to the time of Jacob in the Holy Bible and perhaps earlier. 

 

"Not merely an absence of noise, real silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in chaos to find peace and order in an inner sanctuary".   Peter Minard

"The Holy Bible - Matthew 6:6 says: “Close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”  “If you want to pray,” that is, if you want to enter into a relationship with the infinite Source of all that is, “enter your inner room” (through silence, meditation and/or centering ) - the deepest spiritual level of your being --“close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”   

 “If you want to pray,” that is, if you want to enter into a relationship with the infinite Source of all that is, “enter your inner room” (meditation/centering/ transcending) - the deepest spiritual level of your being --“close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” 

"The early Desert Fathers believed that “close the door” was a metaphor of silencing interior dialogue (through meditation) that is present most often through out the day and night.  This noise of the external world and interior dialogue prevents us from touching and coming into the fullness of our inner most being, where God, and the light of life and love are at the deepest levels. 

So as Paul wrote in Gal. 2:20, “I live now not I, but Christ lives in me”.   That we are with relationship with the infinite Source of all that is, “enter your inner room” (meditation/centering/transcending) - the deepest spiritual level of your being --“close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” 

That we are with within the heart of God and He within us.  Centering/meditation is invitation to access the “Divine” through meditation using the eternal word of God, as Jesus intones us to pray to the Father in secret".  Father Thomas Keating  

 

"When you pray, you yourself must be silent. You do not pray to have your own earthbound desires fulfilled, but you pray: 'Thy will be done.' It is not fitting to wish to use God as an errand boy. You yourself must be silent; let the prayer speak."    Tito Colliander

"The highest level of prayer is not a prayer for anything.  It is a deep and profound silence, in which we allow ourselves to be still and know Him.  In that silence, we are changed.  We are calmed.  We are illumined."    Marianne Williamson

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose".   Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth".   Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)     (see more quotes)