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2nd December
James Finley, Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God (HarperCollins, 2005), 107.
Image: Katie Drazdauskeite, Colorado, USA, unsplash.com/@kotrad
'As you quietly learn the ways of silence, you begin to discover for yourself that there are no handles in silence for you to hold on to. Silence has no shape, no boundaries, no horizon. There are no toeholds in silence to stop your descent into depths you cannot comprehend. It is in learning to rest in silence that you are led by the indwelling spirit into the eternal silence of God.
In reading the creation narrative in the Book of Genesis, we discover that God never said, “Let there be silence.” Silence is, then, uncreated. Being uncreated, silence has no beginning. And in having no beginning, silence never ends. God eternally dwells in the uncreated mystery of the very silence that underlies and pervades our lives. Surely, then, silence is a trustworthy place to be. When you die you will enter into this silence for ever. … We might say that in practicing meditation we are practicing what it will be like to be dead. Which is to say, we are practicing what it will be like to be, at last, eternally, fully alive with the very silence of God.
It is out of God’s eternal silence that God eternally speaks the world and everything in it into being. If only we could become truly silent and attentive, we could hear God uttering us and all of creation into being. The difficulty is that we do not hear so well. The din of our egocentric noise drowns out the silent voice that is uttering us and all things into being. But Christ has come as lord and master of our true self, inviting us, teaching us to listen. … We become silent that we might learn to listen to Christ calling us to love. It is the love revealed to us in Christ that breaks our heart open and teaches us to listen. Our learning to love as Christ has loved us breaks down the barriers that close us off from ourselves, God, and others. Meditation is an act of love. It is a way of becoming silent so that the egocentric noise of our mind can fall into the background. Sitting still and straight, grounded in silence, we become a listening presence.'
To read the unfolding narrative of each day's Advent Adventures with Silence short quotes in order, click the image of the blue tin mug.
To read the unfolding narrative of each day's Advent Adventures with Silence short quotes in order, click the image of the blue tin mug.
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