As an essential path of the mystical life and of mystical care, solitude and stillness are to the end of silence. In addition to the physical and mental benefits, silence is valuable for self-knowledge which is the first step to knowledge of God. Kenneth Leech states:

If we are truly to know ourselves, to accept ourselves, without fear of the darkness and the turmoil within us, we need to cultivate the gift of silence. In silence and solitude, we can enter into ourselves, moving beyond the frenzy of endless activity, whether of body or of mind, which can stand in the way of any real encounter with our true selves. (Leech, Spirituality and Pastoral Care, 20)

In the context of solitude and stillness, intentional silence provides the opportunity for the examination of one’s life. It invites and allows persons to listen to their lives, the boredom and the pain of them no less than the excitement and gladness. (Frederick Buechner) Along these lines, Andrew Vogel Ettin explains how the Swiss Catholic philosopher, Max Picard, in his book The World of Silence, points out the devastating social and moral consequences of not making the silence to listen to oneself. Ettin writes:

Picard’s silence (Schweigen, in his German original) seems more akin to mystical stillness. Silence, he believes, is the antidote to the noisy turmoil of disharmony and war distracting us from our spiritual focus, crowding out the inner space in which we would know our own mind rather than being subsumed into the collective swirl. Picard argues that it was not silent complicity but frenzied commotion that allowed Hitler’s successes. Amid the bustle of modern, machine-age living, Picard suggests, it became harder for human beings to listen to themselves, their hearts, their thoughts, their consciences, their quiet but consistent communications from the divine and eternal. People could not often discern “the thin still voice” (1 King 19:12 kol d’ mamah dakah) or what rabbinic tradition elsewhere terms the bat kol, the “daughter of the voice” of God. (Ettin, Speaking Silences, 5)♦

Source: Daniel J. Miller, Radical Amazement and Deep Sympathy, ©2007, p. 500-01.

Reflection:

Listening to your life as Frederick Buechner urges is not simply a one time exercise that we incorporate into an afternoon gathering of H&H. I suspect it also is our daily bread, otherwise before you know it we too (in small and not so small ways) become complicit in the “frenzied commotion” of the world.

So silence is an act of resistance against “the collective swirl” and the bombardment of “loud” distractions that compete for our attention and pull us away from our heart, conscience, and communion with God. In this sense, practicing silence is an intentional and concrete way of practicing resurrection since by doing so it not only calls into question “the noisy turmoil of disharmony and war” all around us but refuses to partake in the world’s crazy cacophony.
Practice:

Take some time to see if you can distinguish between noise and sounds. Do what you can to take a brief moment or two each day (they don’t have to be long) to intentionally practice silence not merely as an act of seeking peace but also as an act of resistance.