Musings Along Lifes Way: Silence

Someone asked me the other day, "Why do we observe a time of silence in worship?" In "The Way of the Heart," the book that we will be studying on Sunday mornings during Lent, Henri Nouwen says silence does three things: it makes us pilgrims, it preserves the fire within and it teaches us to speak.

Silence makes us pilgrims of the Way because as we overindulge in words our focus moves outward and we find our lives entangled with the world and its problems, our attention diverted from matters of soul and Life. With our focus inward the fire of the Holy One is fueled and our intentional walk with God begins.

As the Holy One accomplishes her work within, silence also functions to preserve the holy fire. The fire of our ardor for God grows and is preserved in the furnace of transformation we experience as silence.
Lastly, according to Nouwen, silence teaches us to speak,. In the gospel of John, John tells us that "In the beginning was the word…" This is the primal, creative word, out of which God spoke all of creation. The very same word present to us in Jesus Christ. Rather that breaking silence, the divine word of God amplifies it. As we speak out of the divine silence of the heart, our voices join in concert with God's voice as we speak true words of heart, words that can help transform as they speak mercy to others and to this world.

So, that's why we observe silence in worship. Finally, silence fosters our sense of God's spirit within helping us to join that spirit for compassionate action.

Opportunities for Silence at First Congregational UCC:
~Morning worship, 8;30 and 10:30 Sunday mornings
~Over Coffee, Adult Study, beginning Feb. 10, 9:30 am – "The Way of the Heart," by Henri Nouwen
~Wednesday Evening Spiritual Enrichment and Meditation, 7 to 8, with an optional half hour to 8:30 pm.

Blessings and Peace, David