Quoting Silence, May 2023:
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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.
Joyce Rupp, our author for May, is a religious Sister in the Order of Servants of Mary (OSM) and author of numerous best-selling and award-winning books about Christian spirituality. She lives in Iowa, USA.
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Guided Meditation for all quotes:
For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to use with each week's quote, click the play button on the image. To pause, and restart, click in the same place. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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Lectio Divina with longer quotes:
For an audio guided Lectio Divina to use with this week's longer quote, click the play button on the image. Allow 10-15 minutes for this practice. To pause, and restart, click in the same place. For a text version of the Lectio Divina meditation, click the button. |
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Monday 1st May, 2023
Joyce Rupp, Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 85.
Image: Jean Wimmerlin, Swizerland, unsplash.com/@jwimmerli
This short image-backed quote is from Joyce Rupp's Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 85.
You can read more about this book by clicking here.
Sister Joyce Rupp, OSM, was born in Iowa, USA, in 1943. After growing up on a North-West Iowan farm, at 19 she joined the Roman Catholic religious order, The Servites of Mary, an order which received its canonical approval in 1304. Today, it is more usually called the Order of the Servants of Mary (OSM). For the nuns of OSM, who dedicate their service to the care of the sick, 'Silence is a constant norm ... outside of the times and places designated for recreation'. You can read more about the lives of those in the American province of the OSM here. Today, Sr. Joyce is renowned internationally as a writer, conference speaker and retreat leader.
When just 30, Rupp began leading retreats for high school and college-aged students for the Archdiocese of Omaha and her commitment to supporting the spiritual journeying and health of others led her to studying spirituality, Transpersonal Psychology and Jungian psychology at Masters' levels in her thirties and forties. Since then, Rupp has authored at least 30 popular books on spirituality and prayer, many of which have won awards and been translated into seven languages. You can explore all her English books here on Joyce Rupp's website. Her Open the Door: Journey to the True Self (Sorin Books, 2008) - see here - was listed amongst the renowned Best 2008 Spirituality Books Award list from Spirituality & Practice (S&P). Whilst S&P is a multi-faith and inter-spiritual organisation rather than specifically Christian, dedicated to providing resources for people's spiritual journeys, it is a goldmine of wonderful things to explore, from courses and book reviews to quotes, blogs and descriptive lists of a wide range of spiritual practices. Their annual Spiritual Book list - see here for the complete lists going back to 1998 - is complemented by a similar list of 'spiritually literate' films - see here.
You may find Joyce Rupp's latest book, Jesus, Companion in my Suffering: Reflections for the Lenten Journey (Ave Maria Press, 2023) - see here - helpful as she reflects on a theme that is prevalent in new books about spirituality after the tumultuous years of Covid and the threat of climate disaster. Others looking for daily inspiration and new ways to think of God may appreciate her Fragments of Your Ancient Name: 365 Glimpses of the Divine for Daily Meditation (Sorin Books, 2011) - see here. This offers a 10-line reflection on each of her collected 365 names for God - one for each day of the year: see here for a seven minute video of her talking about this book. For a lovely 70 minute video on YouTube in which Joyce talks about many aspects of her faith journey, 'Sr. Joyce Rupp: Christian Spirituality, Compassion, The Camino, Finding Roots and True Pilgrimage', see here.
Monday 8th May, 2023
Joyce Rupp, Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 56.
Image: Rona Lao, Toronto, Canada, unsplash.com/@ronalao
This short image-backed quote, above, is taken from the longer quotation, below, from Joyce Rupp's Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 56. You can read more about this book by clicking 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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'Silence and solitude sounds great from a distance, but once we enter into it, the experience may shake us with fear, relentless anxiety, or boredom. All of us have twenty-four hours in a day, though. Twenty-four glorious hours in which we can glean some space to set aside for quiet, where we can aim for quality time with God. We simply cannot run through our life and expect to find lasting peace and meaning. If we continue doing and doing we will miss those graced opportunities to grow deeper, wiser, and more loving.
When Jesus spoke about prayer, he encouraged his listeners to: “… go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret” (Matt. 6:6). Jesus practiced what he preached. The Gospels assure us that Jesus left the active, intense pace he kept and went to the mountains to commune with the One who restored his spiritual vitality. Those spaces of communion are imperative for all of us.'
Monday 15th May 2023
Joyce Rupp, Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 54.
Image: Ducminh Nguyen, Los Angeles, USA, unsplash.com/@demken
This short image-backed quote, above, is taken from the longer quotation, below, from Joyce Rupp's Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 54. You can read more about this book by clicking 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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'When life gets full, the first thing to fly off the daily schedule is usually the time set aside for prayer. (Foregoing prayer is much easier to do when seemingly little fruit seems to be coming from it.)
Faithfulness is about finding a place of peace within us that trusts in God’s nearness no matter whether we feel this nearness or not. We go on praying whether the tide is in or out. We “let go and let God,” who knows the intention of our heart. And that is enough.
When we pray, we cross a threshold into mystery. We enter openly, with an assurance that our life will continually take on the hue of the Holy One. In order to do this, we need quiet times, spaces in our day or evening when silence and solitude are given prominence in our schedule. Our culture does not promote this silence. On the contrary. We are constantly pulled this way and that by our overly active society. The electronic ages seduces us with constant noise and frenetic, compulsive action.'
Monday 22nd May, 2023
Joyce Rupp, Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 75.
Image: Joshua Hanks, Ceres, California, USA, unsplash.com/@jhanks787
This short image-backed quote, above, is taken from the longer quotation, below, from Joyce Rupp's Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 74-75. You can read more about this book by clicking 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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'Some people are fearful of silence and seek to fill the space with music, television, conversation, words, anything but utter stillness. Others think they cannot pray unless they do away with the smallest sound around them. When choosing a time and place of prayer, it is helpful to have a quiet area, but this may not always be possible in our noisy world. So, instead, we learn to become silent inside our self, and pray amid external noise we can neither quell nor control. …
Our acceptance of the world in which we pray allows us to peacefully be present, to not judge obtrusive sounds like cars honking, dogs barking, loud music blaring, or children raucously at play as anything other than the sounds of life. Complete silence and solitude, a rested body, an undistracted mind, are bonuses for prayer, but we cannot wait until these conditions are fully present before we decide to pray. Who knows but what God may communicate with us in the very things we want to eliminate?'
Monday 29th May, 2023
Joyce Rupp, Prayer (Orbis Books, 2007), 115.
Image: Yuziki Wang, Melbourne, Australia, unsplash.com/@yuzikiwww
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 text or the audio version 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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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.
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.