Since Holy Week of 2021 the Seeds of Silence website has posted a weekly quote about silence each Monday..


From ​January's author: ​
​Sarah Sands

​Monday 19th January, 2026
Sarah Sands, ​The Interior Silence: 10 Lessons from Monastic Life  (Short Books, 2021), 173.
Image: Tadeusz Zachwieja, Wroclaw, Poland, unsplash.com/@haiku_ted

​The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week’s longer quote, below, from pages 172-173 of Sarah Sands’ book. ​To read more about the 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.
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.
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.

 I am learning to adjust my sight to the palates of sunrises and sunsets, darkness into light and light into darkness. I am also preparing myself for an inner quietness, for I have booked in at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque near Gordes … a Cistercian monastery, like my fragment of garden wall once was.
 
I had feared that the monastery would cancel my visit; everyone is jittery about a second wave of Covid and quarantine rules are being tightened.
 
A Trappist order of Cistercian monks hidden in a valley, surrounded by lavender fields, is statistically unlikely to encounter Covid. The monks have no need of company and are sustained by the vegetables they grow. If ever there were a time to seal themselves completely from the outside world, it is now.
 
But when I email to check, I am told that I am welcome to stay. I type rather than call because I do not imagine that picking up the phone appeals even to the administrative staff.
 
It is the prospect of silence that most intrigues me. As lockdown starts to lift, we are relearning the rhythms of conversation. I talk incessantly to my grandson, who is starting to follow what I am saying. Some words fill him with mirth. “Canoe” is one. “Hua Wei” is another. I am encouraging him to speak so that he can be fully human.
 
But Trappists believe that talking disturbs inner contemplation. It is in silence that they experience heavenly peace. They aspire to be less human.
To view all quotes and materials for January's 'Quoting Silence: A month with Sarah Sands' series, click the the button below.
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The Quoting Silence Collection

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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.

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