silence, tuesday

Tuesday, June 3

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:

Uncrowd my heart, O God,

until silence speaks

in your still small voice;

turn me from the hearing of words,

and the making of words,

and the confusion of much speaking,

to listening,

waiting,

stillness,

silence.

                        ~Thomas Merton

Scripture Reading for the Day: Habakkuk 2:18-20

Reading for Reflection:    

    

     Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing.  But everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practiced and learned, in these days when talkativeness prevails.  Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue come only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.

     But this stillness before the Word will exert its influence upon the whole day.  If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day.

     The silence of the Christian is listening silence, humble stillness that may be interrupted at any time for the sake of humility. (Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                           

Closing Prayer: Quiet our hearts before you, O Holy God.  Shut our lips and open our eyes and our ears, that we might see you and hear you.  And let us, O Lord of heaven and earth, be transformed—molded and shaped—by what we see and hear.  Amen.