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.
​Different weeks of the month offer different resources, as below:
  • first week: a short, image-backed quote with links to associated resources in the accompanying text
  • middle weeks: a short, image-backed quote taken from a longer one by the author, found below the image
  • last week: a short quote and questions to encourage reflection on all the month's quotations and images
Picture
Julie Saad​, our author for May, is along-standing practitioner of Centering Prayer and an avid journaller who, since 2021, has seen her mission for life as transmitting the teachings of Thomas Keating.

You can find out more about her book,Contemplative Life: Discovering Our Path into the Heart of God (Balboa Press, 2021), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.

Audio resources​

Guided Meditation: for any quote
Lectio Divina: use with long quotes
​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. 
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.
Monday 4th May, 2026
Julie Saad, Contemplative Life: Discovering Our Path into the Heart of God (Balboa Press, 2021), xiii.
Image: Ladyfern photos, British Columbia, unsplash.com/@ladyfernphotos 

​​​​​To read more about Julie Saad's book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.

Julie Saad was raised in the Roman Catholic church and discovered a love for writing whilst being taught by nuns at her Catholic school when she was 10, when she began to keep a diary in earnest. Although she remained what she calls 'a spiritual seeker', she left the church behind in her teenage years, eventually beginning to engage with Buddhist meditation in the mid 1908s. In 1994, she discovered Contemplative Outreach - see here - the organisation established around Thomas Keating - see here - to support the evolving teaching of Centering Prayer and the different ministries emerging from it. Saad describes this return to her roots as where she learned 'the grown up version' of what she was born to in her Catholic family. Centering Prayer has been her practice ever since.

Although Julie didn't think of herself as a writer, her skills in this were honed in healthcare administration where she wrote extensive technical material to help people navigate the complexities of health insurance and Medicare in the USA. Over 15 years, five times Julie attended an intensive six-day journal writing workshop with the depth psychologist and student of Carl Jung, Ira Progoff (also well-known for his translation of The Cloud of Unknowing - see here for the book, which has become the preferred version for many teachers in the contemplative world, including Cynthia Bourgeault - and here for more on Progoff). This immersion in writing, and a nine month journaling course, 'Write to Heal', with Mark Matousek - see here - helped her to find her writing voice and begin to believe that she might one day write a book.

In 2017, Julie was invited to write the introductory text to a weekly video clip featuring the teaching of Thomas Keating, which she described as 'the most disciplined approach to writing' that she had ever experienced. Through this work, and her decades of living with the practice of Centering Prayer, she found the inspiration for her book. See here​.  The book draws deeply on Saad's sustained engagement with journaling, inviting those who practice Centering Prayer into a profound exploration of their journeying with this practice.

For an 8 minute guided 'I am' meditation with Julie, see here. For a 75 minute video of Julie talking about Centering Prayer, see here.  For a two hour video of two sessions on 'Interior Silence: Resting in Daily Life' with Julie, see here. 

Saad is a member of the Contemplative Outreach community where she lives in Denver, Colorado, and serves on the governing board of Contemplative Outreach. She is co-ordinator of the organisation's Practice of Contemplative Living program - see here - a nine-month formation process supporting participants to develop a contemplative lifestyle in the contemporary world.

Julie Saad also describes herself as a creative, and says it is engagement in creative processes like making collages, drawing, painting, creating sets of prayer beads, crocheting afghans and prayer shawls and cooking elaborate meals that give her most satisfaction in life. She writes, 'There’s something about being engaged in creating that makes time stand still, keeps me totally in the present moment without the niggling of the concerns of daily life, makes me feel pleased with myself.'
Monday 11th May, 2026
Julie Saad, Contemplative Life: Discovering Our Path into the Heart of God (Balboa Press, 2021), 38.
Image: Cor Dulce, Vietnam, unsplash.com/@cor_dulce

​​​​​​​​​​​The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 37-38 of Julie Saad's book. ​​​​​To read more about his book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
​
​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.

'The image of God I grew up with made it difficult for me to let go. Letting go requires unmitigated trust, and that kind of trust requires a loving relationship. The God I was introduced to when I was a child was not a God I particularly wanted to have a relationship with. But Centering Prayer taught me how to have a relationship with God. It was tentative at first, just as any human relationship would be. It took time and practice. Prayer wasn’t something that came easily to me because it had always been focused on communicating with words and I was never sure who or what I was supposed to be communicating with. It never occurred to me that words were not required until I heard Thomas Keating say that silence is God’s first language. I also learned that you don’t get to know someone when you do all the talking. In fact, some of the most satisfying times I have spent with loved ones have been in that space of intimate silence where words are not necessary. The exchange of the energy of love is often best held in silence.
 
Religion has a place in some people's lives; it certainly did in mine—up to a certain point. What I didn’t learn In my religion was how to go directly to God without any intermediary. It was always hard for me to believe what someone else told me I had to believe in order to belong. But through it all I never stopped longing for God. I remember hearing one time that our longing for God is really God’s longing for us. In my human experience I never felt particularly “longed for” until I started doing Centering Prayer and developed a direct relationship with God. That’s where I started to experience what Divine Indwelling means.'
To request the weekly 'Quoting Silence: A month with ...' emails each Monday, with links to the month's author page on the website, click this button.
To return to the 'Quoting Silence: A month with ...' Collection, click this button.