on turning the corner

hey! you've found the place where pablo's blog is posted: here you'll find an alternative window on the world, enhanced with poetic reflections and some passport trails to track pablo's globehopping ventures — enjoy!

March 31, 2007

Sound of silence…

Paul Simon once penned: "the words of the prophet are written on the subway walls and tenement halls… and echo in the sound of silence." Perhaps today it is too easy to be one of those people who "bowed and prayed to the neon god they'd made", so an enforced media fast during a few days spent in a benedictine monastery has helped to clear my head of the clamour of images and voices that crowd in from a post–modern world.

Silence is essential for our sanity of spirit for "it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks." And as Mother Teresa goes on to say, listening to God is important since "it is not what we say, but what God says to us and through us that matters." So here are two reflections on silence for you to check out for yourself:

First is a film I watched last week entitled "Into Great Silence" by Philip Gröning. Not a story about an ascetic monastic order, this is rather an immersion experience of monastic spirituality filmed in the elemental translucence of natural light, and beautifully articulated within the rhythmic cycle of the seasons. For 160 full minutes you accompany the monks about their prayers, tasks and rituals. Such a poetic chronicle can only fully be appreciated if you take several long deep breaths and slow your racing pulse.

On a similar theme is the book "Into the Silent Land", Martin Laird's practice of contemplation. Patiently attending to the discipline of silence unlocks the doorways to perceptiveness of the world, honesty to oneself, and intimacy with God. This unsophisticated volume offers an approach to prayer that is utterly profound, yet simple enough to be within the reach of all, even people such as you and I.

As one who seven days hence will take monastic vows of simplicity, purity, accountability and presence, I would do well to take note of these prophets to the post–modern day, their words and images echoing the voices of ancient wisdom. For sure, this is a worthy practice to cultivate…

And no, I will not be taking a vow of silence!