Another reason silence is important is because it makes the deep wordless and nonconceptual prayer of contemplation possible. In prayer, silence is the voluntary poverty that invites persons to let go of their agendas, hidden or otherwise, and to let God be God. In contemplative prayer, persons discover that silence is not the absence of God but the language of God. Contemplative silence is the necessary condition for deep listening, for we cannot use language we do not understand. By being silent in the loving presence of God, we begin to learn the language God speaks in prayer. Rabbi Heschel states, “What the word can no longer yield, man (sic) achieves through the fullness of his powerlessness.” (Quest, 39)
True silence, silence of the heart, signals not merely the absence of speech or sound, but stillness, surrender, and absence of self-concern. Thomas Merton says that this interior silence is impossible without humility and mercy, and consequently is an expression of both human meekness and divine gratuity (Thoughts in Solitude, 74). As the intentional turning of one’s attention from the self to God, Heschel says silence represents the highest understanding, signals the highest praise, and hints at the holiness hidden within the pious man or woman. Merton insists this silence is life-giving, literally that it gives-us-our lives. He writes:
My life is a listening, [God’s] is a speaking. My salvation is to hear and respond. For this, my life must be silent. Hence, my silence is my salvation. (Ibid.)
Merton maintains that the reason this silence is salvific is because it is where and how we discover our true identity, our original and eternal name. It is where we discover that our true identity resides not in our accomplishments or failures, not in our good or bad behavior, not in our family of origin or who we know or what we own, but rather in God alone. Merton writes:
It is necessary to name Him Whose silence I share and worship, for in His silence He also speaks my own name. He alone knows my name, in which I also know His name. . . . As soon as He speaks my name, my silence is the silence of infinite life, and I know that I am because my heart has opened to my Father in the echo of the eternal years. (Ibid., 73, 74)
Silence is salvific because it is there that our listening hearts hear God call us each by name – our true name. This suggests that at the core of contemplative prayer is the experience of discovering oneself as known and loved by God which is a transforming moment.♦
Practice: Here is a Prayer-Mantra for the day or week.
My life is a listening.
Yours is a speaking.
So I will listen.