Why do we fear coming to God? Why does turning to God come only once we have no where else to turn in our trials? Rather than God being first, we turn instead to friends, family, spouses, culture, society, and only when other sources are exhausted do we turn to Christ in prayer. Obviously, these all could very well be God-given avenues of advice and comfort, but He wants us to bring all things to Him, especially in the moments we are most afraid to come to Him.
Remembering the difference between fearing the Lord in respect and awe and fearing the Lord in the same way we fear a spider or towering heights is important. We even go so far as to allow our fear to prevent us from being intimate with Christ, the very Person who can satisfy our hearts deepest longing. Recently, I attended my first silent retreat. I feared the silence right up until I arrived at the retreat house. What if God didn’t ‘show up’? What if He did? What if I don’t like what Christ has to say? What if I am not ‘present’ enough to benefit from the experience? What if all I hear is silence and an empty wind? I don’t even know if I know how to listen properly!
When I discussed the retreat with friends the first thing they asked was how long the silence lasted. After explaining the silence was with Scripture but throughout the weekend, most were apprehensive to say the least. Our world constantly bombards us with white, mostly unhealthy, noise. Even if we acknowledge our dependence on technology or the unending drags on our time, we are still unwilling to part with these time drainers. Entering into silence with God can seem like traveling to a foreign country with unusual sights and sounds. This is only so because the world has conditioned us to avoid silence. Nearly to the point of categorizing all silence as awkward.
Practicing His Presence
Since I sometimes don’t know what to say to God, I thrive in structured prayer. Often, I lack discipline in my spiritual life, and prayers like the Divine Office help me to focus on God through the prayers and Scripture I am given for the Hours. During Adoration, I prefer to be reading something or praying a chaplet or Rosary. Words read or spoken. None of this is bad or wrong, but you’ll notice that most of those practices are me speaking or thinking about something related to God, His love, grace, etc. Which is good, but should not be the only aspect of my prayer life. While Christ gave us the Lord’s Prayer and through the Church He has given us an ever growing treasure trove, He desires our hearts more than our words. If a heart is united to Christ the words will follow.
Praying isn’t simply listing your needs and concerns, though they are a part, to God and expecting their fulfillment. Prayer is a relationship with the Living God. Christ wants to hear those things, but He also has something to say to your heart. His love for you fully manifests itself when you enter into a relationship with Him. If prayer is a relationship, then we should be listening as much or more than we speak. How can you love someone whom you neither spend time with or listen to?
In his spiritual classic, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence gave counsel to be continually in conversation with God. Yes, set aside specific times for Scripture and meditation, but remember to speak to God throughout your day. God doesn’t need us to pencil in an appointment to speak with Him. He is ever ready to hear our prayers.
That with [Brother Lawrence] the set times of prayer were not different from the other times; that he retired to pray according to the directions of his superior, but that he did not want such retirement, nor ask for it, because his greatest business did not divert him from God.
If we can grow in our relationship with Christ, sitting in silence is no longer a source of anxiety. Allowing yourself to sit before God is allowing yourself to be loved for you are interiorly, not necessarily for what you are saying or doing. It is important to distinguish between your spirituality, Marian, charismatic, intellectual, etc, which leads you to certain types of prayer and using these forms of prayer as a way to avoid being silent with God. A prayer filler of sorts. Adoration may be filled with chant, Liturgy of the Hours, praise and worship music, etc but at its heart is time spent alone with Christ, to love Him and be loved by Him.
Blunt Prayer
If fear has infected us, we may be afraid to speak and listen to God in the silence without reservation. Confusion, doubt, anger, and the like are emotions and thoughts we may believe God not only has no interest in but may actually dislike. In other words, God only wishes to hear me when I am thanking Him, praising Him, or asking for virtue, and He doesn’t want to hear about my doubts, personal desires, or the sins I struggle with. We lie to ourselves the way our first parents did. That God, in His omniscience, some how doesn’t know something as long as we do not give voice to it. Or, that the moment we deviate from the Divine Will God will wash His hands of us.
This is not reality. God is always lovingly seeking us and desires us to speak with Him openly. To some extent, this means examining ourselves and our relationship with Him. This can be unsettling. Speaking honestly to God means being honest first with ourselves about our failings, successes, sins, virtues, doubts, and struggles. But, if we can accept our need for God’s healing love the silence is a place of refuge, a home.
An Attentive Ear
Brother Lawrence advises us to speak frankly with God but to always be ready to listen. This requires us to be still at times in the silence. Reading, singing, devotions, music, and the like all something to say in the spiritual life. But, at some point, we have to set it all aside and listen. And, as for the prophet Eli’jah (1 Kings 19: 11-13), God will come in that still, small voice. This is not to say God may not speak to us in other forms of prayer. We all have ‘ah ha’ moments when reading or hearing a song, but we are souls who need a nourishing of a kind that can only be truly satisfied by spending intimate time with our Creator.
Musicians will tell you that over time and with practice the ear may discern the fine differences in music and thus have a greater appreciation for the beauty they hear. So it is with Christ. Over time our relationship with Christ may deepen and grow if we are attentive and speak with Him. There is always something more for Him to give you, to show you, to teach you. With time and prayer, our souls become tuned to the Divine Will and thus more easily hear Him through the world’s spiritual pollution. Greater intimacy with Christ increases our ability to grow in virtue and leave behind our sinful ways. Painful and difficult as this may be, we are all called to practice virtue in our lives and God’s grace is the means to ever grow.
That all things are possible to him who believes; that they are less difficult to him who hopes; that they are more easy to him who loves and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues. – Brother Lawrence
Photography: Kelli Ann Cresswell
6 thoughts on “Fearing the Silence”
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Has your immortal soul been eased into a heretic state against … God’s must know Catholic Dogma, Dogma which you have never seen ?
Has this fact placed you outside of God’s Catholic Church … which uncorrected causes the loss of your soul ?
Is there a Catholic Dogma remedy … for re-entering the Catholic Church ?
Answer: The answer to all three questions is … yes. Please continue.
You have been *profoundly* deceived …
Council of Florence, Session 8, 22 Nov 1439 — infallible Source of Dogma >
“Whoever wills to be saved, before all things it is necessary that he holds the Catholic faith. Unless a person keeps this faith whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish eternally.”
You must believe the Catholic Dogma to be in the Church … Dogma you have *never* seen.
Site > http://www.Immaculata-one.com … infallible Dogma throughout.
The … Catholic Sources of Dogma … is the must know Faith. It is not “Bible interpretation”.
The … Catholic Sources of Dogma … is the must know Faith. It is not “Bible interpretation”.
The … Catholic Sources of Dogma … is the must know Faith. It is not “Bible interpretation”.
The Catholic Faith *is not* Bible interpretation … it is the infallible Sources of Dogma (of the Pope in union with the Bishops of the world). The Catholic Church didn’t even define the Bible’s New Testament Canon until 397 A.D. at the Council of Carthage.
Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D. — Ex-Cathedra Dogma >
“The heretic, even though he has not been condemned formally by any individual, in reality brings anathema on himself, having cut himself off from the way of truth by his heresy.”
– – – – – – – – – –
Can a group which enforces the opposite, the opposite, and the opposite of the Catholic unchangeable Dogma be the Catholic Church?
No … it cannot possibly be the Catholic Church … and promotion of the opposite of the Catholic Dogma is exactly what the vatican-2 heretic cult does … and has been doing since it’s founding on 8 December 1965 at the Vatican.
The founding documents of the vatican-2 heretic cult … the “vatican-2 council” documents … have well over 200 heresies *against* prior defined unchangeable Dogma … 50 listed at > http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.html
Every (apparent) bishop at the “council” approved the mountain of heresy, which caused their automatic excommunication … automatic excommunication Dogma listed > http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.2.html
Photographic proof … of heresy and apostasy by people … dressed up like Catholic Bishops …
http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.html and http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.6.1.html
http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.6.2.html and http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.7.1.html
http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.7.2.html and http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.10.1.html
The vatican-2 heresy does not have the Office of the Papacy … only the Catholic Church has the Office of the Papacy.
The … Gates of Hell scripture … has nothing to do with the Papacy … Dogma listed > http://www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.3.html
The Dogma cannot “change” or be “reversed” … God does not “change”.
– – – – – – – – – –
Section 12 > Anti-Christ vatican-2 heresies (50 listed) … followed by many Catholic corrections.
(www.Immaculata-one.com/section_12.html)
Sections 13 and 13.1 > Photographic *proof* of heresy at the Vatican.
(www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.html)
Because of … the Catholic Dogma on automatic excommunication for heresy or for physical participation in a heretic cult (such as the v-2 cult) …
… we were all placed, body and soul, *outside* of Christianity (the Catholic Church) on 8 December 1965 … the close date of the “council”.
Sections 13.2 and 13.2.2 > Catholic Dogma on automatic excommunication for heresy or participating in a heretic cult such as … “vatican-2”, “lutheran”, “methodist”, “evangelical”, etc.
(www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.2.html) (www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.2.2.html)
Section 107 > St. Athanasius (died 373 A.D.) … “Even if the Church were reduced to a handful …” – – during the “arian” heresy … we are there again, but worse.
(www.Immaculata- one.com/section_107.html)
Section 13.3 > Matthew 16:18, Gates of Hell scripture … is *not* about the Office of the Papacy … four Dogmatic Councils defined it … that heresy will not cause the Dogma to disappear.
(www.Immaculata one.com/section_13.3.html)
Section 13.4 > The vatican-2 heretic cult does not have the Office of the Papacy only the Catholic Church has the Papacy. (www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.4.html)
Section 13.6 > The Catholic Dogma on Jurisdiction and Automatic Excommunication for heresy define that … God has allowed Catholic Jurisdiction … for Mass and Confession to disappear from the world. There is no such thing as Catholic Mass outside of the Catholic Church.
(www.Immaculata-one.com/section_13.6.html)
Non-Catholic heresies such as “vatican-2”, “sspx”, “sspv”, “cmri”, etc. … do not have Catholic Mass.
Section 19.1 > Dogma on Abjuration for *re-entering* Christianity (the Catholic Church) … after being automatically excommunicated. A Formal Abjuration is provided here also. (www.Immaculata-one.com/section_19.1.html)
Section 10.2 > Returning to a state of grace, in places and times when Confession is not available, like now. (www.Immaculata-one.com/section_10.2.html)
– – – – – – – – – –
Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D. — infallible Source of Dogma >
“The heretic, even though he has not been condemned formally by any individual, in reality brings anathema on himself, having cut himself off from the way of truth by his heresy.”
Blessed John Eudes, died 1680 >
“The greatest evil existing today is heresy, an infernal rage which hurls countless souls into eternal damnation.”
Everything you must know, believe, and do to get to Heaven is on > > http://www.Immaculata-one.com.
Mike
Our Lady of Conquest
Pray for us
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IN T H E S I L E N C E
In the silence of my heart
I come to love You
Oh My Lord
To praise and worship You
My Master and My Savior
No words are spoken between us
Only so soft a whisper
And in my soul
An outpouring of so much
Undeserved love and grace
For
How often do I desert You
Thinking You don’t love me
Forgetting about You
Oh, how stupid and ungrateful
Then I am
For
Without You I’m nothing
But a trembling reed
A creature full of fear
But,
Your creature sure I am
For this immensely grateful
Oh You, fullness of my soul
Reason for my existence
Sole purpose of my life
Object of my deepest thoughts
My God and my Almighty
I will serve You and obey
Surrender to Your Will divine
Embrace me with Your burning warmth
Cradle me in Your Fatherly arms
Oh, my well-beloved
Let me borrow from Your Love
Let Your Mercy shine upon me,
Your poor and littlest child
So, that with Your Grace
I will proclaim
Your Greatness,
Your Goodness and
Your Name
Through my work and being !!
Rita Biesemans 7-27-1999
That is a wonderful prayer. Thank you for sharing! God Bless you and yours.