2nd December, 2024
Henri Nouwen, With Open Hands (Ave Maria Press, 1994 [1972]), 29.
Image: The New York Public Library, unsplash.com/@nypl
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For many, silence is threatening. They don’t know what to do with it. If they leave the noise of the city behind and come upon a place where no cars are roaring by, no ships tooting, no trains rumbling; where there is no hum of radio or television, where no CDs or tapes are playing, they feel their entire bodies gripped by an intense unrest. They feel like a fish thrown on dry land. They have lost their bearings. Some people can’t study without a solid wall of music surrounding them. If they are forced to sit in a room without a constant flow of sound, they grow very nervous.
Thus, for many of us, silence has become a threat. There was a time when silence was normal, and a lot of noise disturbed us. But today, noise is the normal fare, and silence—strange as it may seem—has become the disturbance. It is not hard to understand why people who experience silence in this way have difficulty with prayer. …
But still more difficult than getting rid of these exterior noises is the achievement of inner silence, a silence of the heart. It seems that a person who is caught up in all that noise has lost touch with their inner self. The questions which are asked from within remain unanswered. Unsure feelings are not cleared up; tangled desires are not straightened out, and confusing emotions are not understood. All that remains is a chaotic tumbles of feelings which have never had a chance to be sorted out.
Pages 29-30 & 32.