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Since Holy Week of 2021 the Seeds of Silence website has posted a weekly quote about silence each Monday.. |
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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, from pages 37-38 of Julie Saad's book. To read more about Julie Saad's book, from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
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Guided meditation for the short quote
For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to accompany this week’s short image-backed quote, click the play button on the image above. To pause, click the same place.
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Listen to the longer quote
To hear this week’s longer quotation being read, click the play button on the image above. To see the image full-screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner.
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Lectio Divina for use with long quote
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 a text version of the meditation, click here.
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'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.'
'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.'
The Quoting Silence Collection
To go to the collection of more than 50 different image-backed quotes about silence, each from a different author, and with links to associated resources, please click the button below.
The 'Quoting Silence:
A month with ... ' Collection
From May 2022 the 'Quoting Silence: A month with ... ' quotes are building into a new collection over the year. From this collection, you'll be able to access all the quotes and resources from any month by clicking the button.
To go to this new collection, click the button below.
To go to this new collection, click the button below.
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