Visit my New Blog

Hello!  I am starting a new blog called The Great Silence which you will find at mosaicgreatsilence.blogspot.com.  The Great Silence will focus on silence as an essential spiritual discipline for those seeking a deeper connection with God.

 

Also, don't forget to check in to my bible reflections: listening to the still, small voice of God at mosaicbiblestudy.blogspot.com on the weekly lectionary as we explore the text using the ancient art of Lectio Divina, which means sacred reading.   It is a beautiful way to "receive" the Word ... rather than "taking" from it. 

Rumi on Silence

A Great Silence overcomes me, 

and I wonder why I ever thought to use language. 

~Rumi

Have you ever had a "great silence" overcome you?   A sense of expansiveness within that grows until peace descends around you and you know ... God is with you, God is within you, God simply IS and I am speech-less in the Presence.

In Silence

Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your Name.

Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

O be still, while
You are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.
“I will try,
like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult.
The whole
World is secretly on fire.
The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me.
How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning?
How can he dare
To sit with them
When all their silence
Is on fire?”

~ Thomas Merton ~

(The Strange Islands: Poems by Thomas Merton)

Be Still

Be Still and Know that I AM God

~Psalm 46:10a

This half verse from the Psalms sums up my deepest desire as I withdraw physically from the world and enter into a time of retreat.  In this context, retreat means to me that I step off the hamster wheel of life in order to seek a place where outer silence and quiet can begin to still the inner being.  When I am able to "be still" then I am able to re-connect with God without life screaming at me.  I know many people do not feel the need for this but I do.  I find that life has great expectations of me, that I have great expectations of myself, and that I suffer from feeling overwhelmed with my own imperfections.  Somehow in the silence of my inner being, my imperfections are seen through the eyes of God, each flaw a beautiful vessel of grace. 

I try for 30 minutes of silence a day ... a day of silence in a month with spiritual direction ... and several days once per year, sometimes on my own and sometimes in community. 

What is your practice of silence and what have you learned?

The Great Silence Contemplative Retreat

The Great Silence

“True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit
what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment.” ~William Penn

April 16-18, 2013 Tuesday-Thursday

Fair Village Cabins at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center

$225/Private room with 2 persons per cabin
Check In after 1 pm and Gather at 4 pm on Tuesday, Sending Forth after Lunch on Thursday
Suggested Reading for 1st Timers before Silent Retreat: Inviting Silence, Gunilla Norris

Special Extended Retreat Option:  

Come on Monday for a special day of self-guided silence/Only $50 additional

The gift of this time apart is the open spaciousness it will give you to put down your calendar, 

your computer and your meetings, and simply “be still and know that I am God.”  

We will live in community with a daily rhythm of morning and evening prayer, 

home-cooked meals in common, 2-3 individual sessions with a trained spiritual director, 

and time in solitude to ponder and pray while embraced 

in a shared bond of contemplation and silence.   

This will be a life-giving and spirit-renewing experience! 

Space is limited … Register NOW! 

For Information or To Register 

Email: Cindy or Call 832-330-3973
Registration complete upon receipt of 

$50 non-refundable registration fee made payable to “Charis”
Mail to: Christ UMC, Attn:  Charis, 4201 Hwy 6 South, College Station, TX 77845
You will receive a confirmation email when registered and 

an information packet 2 weeks before retreat.

Silence

Within each of us there is a silence- a silence as vast as the universe. 

We are afraid of it- and we long for it. 

~ Gunilla Norris, Inviting Silence