Quoting Silence, July 2025:
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A post throughout each week of the month, offering quotes and resources linked to one contemporary author who writes about silence and its role as a spiritual discipline. |
The first week of each month has a short, image-backed quote with links to associated resources in the text below it. In other weeks, the short quote is taken from a longer one by the month's author, found below the image. The last week of the month has a short quote and questions to encourage reflection on all the month's quotations and images.
Lerita Coleman Brown, our author for July is the first Black author to feature in this series. She is a retired College professor and now offers a ministry of spiritual direction, as well as speaking and writing about contemplative spirituality in daily life.
You can read more about Lerita Coleman Brown's book, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman (Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
You can read more about Lerita Coleman Brown's book, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman (Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
Audio resources
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For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to use with each week's short quote, click play on the image. To pause and restart click the same place.
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An audio guided Lectio Divina for the longer quotes. Click play on the image above. Allow 10-15 minutes for this. For a text version, click the button.
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Monday 7th July, 2025
Lerita Coleman Brown, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Henry Thurman (Broadleaf Books, 2023), 30.
Image: Pablo Merchán Montes, Colombia, unsplash.com/@pablomerchanm
To read more about Lerita Coleman Brown's book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
Lerita Coleman Brown is Emeritus Professor of Psychology from Agnes Scott College, a private liberal Arts college in Georgia, USA, where she was also Director of the Agnes Scott Science Centre for Women: see here.
Lerita describes herself as a born contemplative, who loves many of the gentle, centering forms of engagement that will be familiar to us all as supporting this way of life: gardening, sitting in nature, sewing, visual and performing arts, reading and writing - and, she adds, 'laughing a lot', which helps us all to take ourselves a little less seriously. However, her life of prayer was significantly deepened by her experience of severe health conditions, having survived both a heart and kidney transplant in 1995 and 2005, respectively. But her more public role as a retreat leader, speaker and spiritual companion, as well as an author on spirituality, emerged following her graduation from the world-renowned Spiritual Guidance Programme at the Shalem Institute of Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC: see here.
At Shalem, Lerita discovered the writings of the Black theologian and mystic, Howard Thurman, whose work she explores in depth in What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman, our book for this month: see here. For a 20 minute interview of her discussing this book with Mark Longhurst for the Centre for Action and Contemplation's Daily Meditations series, see here. If you haven't yet discovered CAC, see here. For a 45 minute interview with Christine Valtners Paintner from Abbey of the Arts, see here. To find out more about Abbey of the Arts, see here. For a 35 minute podcast with Contemplating Now, in which she discusses the need for more expansive understandings of mysticism and contemplation, see here.
To read more about Lerita's journey through heart failure and an eventual transplant, you can find out about her earlier book, When the Heart Speaks, Listen: Discovering Inner Wisdom (Black Rose Writing, 2019), here. You can also read her blog, Peace for Hearts, which exists to help people live from a place of peace and joy, here.
Lerita's website, here, gives more information about her current life and ministry. She lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, with her husband and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren.
Monday 14th July, 2025
Lerita Coleman Brown, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Henry Thurman (Broadleaf Books, 2023), 25.
Image: Joshua Earl, Scotland, UK, unsplash.com/@joshuaearl
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 24-25 of Lerita Coleman Brown's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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I’m not certain where my own love affair with silence and solitude began. I grew up with two brothers and, as the only girl in the family at the time, was granted my own bedroom. This personal sanctuary, away from the din of television, radio, and family life, offered a blanket of Serenity. I spent many hours in silence looking out the window, reading, and daydreaming. Attendance at mass, as part of my parochial school elementary education, forged a link in my mind between silence and sacredness. We entered the sanctuary, we were only allowed to whisper, and we sat quietly in our pews until an usher’s signal to stand for the procession.
Later, in my adult years, I found the practise of sitting in silence in the morning—letting go of my thoughts and focusing inwardly to hear the voice of God—to relax and anchor me. This form of prayer did not remove all the stress of my life as a college professor. But I coped better with the stressors when I established a deep connection with my Creator through the habit of quieting my mind and stilling my heart.
… Howard Thurman believed that a place deep within us yearns for moments of quiet serenity. Silence, stillness, and solitude: in our noise filled lives, these bring peace, heal, strengthen, and facilitate spiritual growth. This belief is shared among Mystics of many religious traditions. Writers from many faith traditions and spiritual philosophies such as Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, Islam, and shamanism speak about the importance of these three pillars of the spiritual path.
When we intentionally centre down in contemplative prayer and meditation, God reminds us of our unsevered bond. Invoking an inward quietness can aid the discernment process when facing life-altering decisions like a choice in medical treatment or a move to another city. To retreat silently even in our own homes or to escape from our daily routine even briefly—this allows answers to our questions to bubble up through an uncluttered mind.
I’m not certain where my own love affair with silence and solitude began. I grew up with two brothers and, as the only girl in the family at the time, was granted my own bedroom. This personal sanctuary, away from the din of television, radio, and family life, offered a blanket of Serenity. I spent many hours in silence looking out the window, reading, and daydreaming. Attendance at mass, as part of my parochial school elementary education, forged a link in my mind between silence and sacredness. We entered the sanctuary, we were only allowed to whisper, and we sat quietly in our pews until an usher’s signal to stand for the procession.
Later, in my adult years, I found the practise of sitting in silence in the morning—letting go of my thoughts and focusing inwardly to hear the voice of God—to relax and anchor me. This form of prayer did not remove all the stress of my life as a college professor. But I coped better with the stressors when I established a deep connection with my Creator through the habit of quieting my mind and stilling my heart.
… Howard Thurman believed that a place deep within us yearns for moments of quiet serenity. Silence, stillness, and solitude: in our noise filled lives, these bring peace, heal, strengthen, and facilitate spiritual growth. This belief is shared among Mystics of many religious traditions. Writers from many faith traditions and spiritual philosophies such as Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, Islam, and shamanism speak about the importance of these three pillars of the spiritual path.
When we intentionally centre down in contemplative prayer and meditation, God reminds us of our unsevered bond. Invoking an inward quietness can aid the discernment process when facing life-altering decisions like a choice in medical treatment or a move to another city. To retreat silently even in our own homes or to escape from our daily routine even briefly—this allows answers to our questions to bubble up through an uncluttered mind.
Monday 21st July, 2025
Lerita Coleman Brown, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Henry Thurman (Broadleaf Books, 2023), 30.
Image: NEOM, Saudi Arabia, unsplash.com/@neom
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 29-30 of Lerita Coleman Brown's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 29-30 of Lerita Coleman Brown's book. To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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'Like many spiritual seekers, I now consider listening to God in silence and solitude vital. … Howard Thurman encourages us to slow down, pause, be quiet, if only for a few moments, and connect with eternal wisdom.
Unfortunately, many Christians associate contemplative practices like meditation, centering prayer, or silent retreats with eastern religions or philosophies and then categorically reject them. Yet early Christians fled into the deserts to escape persecution and to experience the power of solitude, silence, and stillness. These early desert mothers and fathers heard holy wisdom in silence and served as the first Christian spiritual directors and companions. They urged those who came seeking spiritual guidance to maintain a regular practise of silence and solitude, similar to meditation or contemplative prayer. Later, many Christian contemplatives moved to monasteries and private hermitages. Practised by nuns and monks for centuries, centring prayer and Christian meditation spread to millions beyond cloistered communities—to retreat centres, meditation groups, prayers circles, support groups, and personal prayer times.
What contemplative prayer and different forms of meditation—including insight, mindfulness, transcendental, and vipassana meditation—have in common is an attempt to reduce the inner chatter. When the mind is quieted and the heart stilled, we often discover physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing. When we rest the mind, we can access other forms of consciousness. What distinguishes religious or Christian meditation from other forms, though, is its focus on God, paired with the desire for a deep, ongoing, intimate relationship with the Creator.'
Monday 28th July, 2025
Lerita Coleman Brown, What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Henry Thurman (Broadleaf Books, 2023), 49.
Image: Caroline Veronez, Brazil, unsplash.com/’@carolineveronez
To read more about her book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
The last week of each month offers some questions to help you reflect further on its quotations and images, and how they resonate with your own spiritual journey and relationship with God.
You can engage with these using the written or audio versions of the questions, below.
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Listen to the reflection questions:
To listen to the reflection questions, below, being read, click the play button on the 'Reflect ...' image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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Reflection questions:
Before reflecting on this month's quotes and images, take time to re-ground yourself in your body.
Perhaps take a few slow breaths, feel your feet on the floor and be aware of how your body feels in this moment.
1) Read back over or listen again to this month's quotes and spend time looking at their associated images. As you do so, note a phrase or image that draws your attention. If this is a phrase, you might like to write this out in a journal or on a piece of paper where you will see it regularly. Consider reading aloud several times what you have written to help the words sink more deeply into your heart. If an image resonates with you, let your gaze rest lightly on it for a couple of minutes, allowing it to speak to your heart. Consider using it as a screensaver for a while, or perhaps print it out and place it somewhere that you will see it often.
2) What emerges as you sit with the phrase or image that attracted your attention? Does a new insight or a question, emotion or sensation arise? Take some time to write down and ponder on whatever you notice.
3) Where can you see hope in the midst of what is emerging in you, for yourself, your neighbour, your community, or the planet? How might this impact your daily life and those with whom you share it?
4) In the days and weeks to come, how can you stay open to what you have discovered from your reflections?
Take some time to give thanks for the hope that you have found in this month's quotes and images.
Reflection questions:
Before reflecting on this month's quotes and images, take time to re-ground yourself in your body.
Perhaps take a few slow breaths, feel your feet on the floor and be aware of how your body feels in this moment.
1) Read back over or listen again to this month's quotes and spend time looking at their associated images. As you do so, note a phrase or image that draws your attention. If this is a phrase, you might like to write this out in a journal or on a piece of paper where you will see it regularly. Consider reading aloud several times what you have written to help the words sink more deeply into your heart. If an image resonates with you, let your gaze rest lightly on it for a couple of minutes, allowing it to speak to your heart. Consider using it as a screensaver for a while, or perhaps print it out and place it somewhere that you will see it often.
2) What emerges as you sit with the phrase or image that attracted your attention? Does a new insight or a question, emotion or sensation arise? Take some time to write down and ponder on whatever you notice.
3) Where can you see hope in the midst of what is emerging in you, for yourself, your neighbour, your community, or the planet? How might this impact your daily life and those with whom you share it?
4) In the days and weeks to come, how can you stay open to what you have discovered from your reflections?
Take some time to give thanks for the hope that you have found in this month's quotes and images.