Silence and Solitude

The silence that pervades the monastic milieu fosters a life of prayer. The value of silence is that it allows us to listen to God in the depths of our being. The practice of silence is essential in the formation of a truly mature religious spirit. Without such a disposition it is difficult to see in the vicissitudes of life God¹s holy will and the touch of His loving Providence. When surrounded by noise and even chaos, this interior disposition remains at peace. Throughout his life the monk has ever to struggle to attain to this silence, for in this silence there is love.

Love, says St. Bernard, seeks no justification outside itself. Love is sufficient to itself, is pleasing in itself and for its own sake. Love is its own merit and its own reward. Love seeks no cause outside itself and no results other than itself…The fruit of love is love.

This love is the perfection of charity, the royal road which leads us to our final goal and happiness. Why? Because love comes from God as its source and returns to Him as its end. God Himself is Love. Those, however, who may feel drawn to the outward silence of our life, in which they see a calm refuge for a secluded life, will experience frustration and even unhappiness. The holy silence which pervades monastic life finds its meaning and fulfilment in the inner peace of contemplative solitude. It serves especially to break down the barriers which keep us imprisoned in superficial securities.

The contemplative knows, as did Thomas Merton, probably the most famous Cistercian of modern times :

That the truest solitude is not something outside him, not an absence of men or of sound around him: it is an abyss opening up in the centre of his own soul. And this abyss of interior solitude is created by a hunger that will never be satisfied with any created thing. Seeds of Contemplation.

In every human being there is a God-shaped emptiness. This infinite loneliness is a space that ultimately only God can fill. As most of us know from experience, often painful experience, we try to fill that emptiness with ideas and activities that are not of God.

In Christ alone is to be found every question which already has its answer in Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

His promise is fulfilled in those who love Him and trust in His word. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the exemplar of the contemplative life because she believed that the promise made to her by God would be fulfilled. She said ‘Yes,’ and the Word became flesh! She nurtured the Word of God and kept a unique place for him in her heart. Like Mary, the life of a monk is a life passed pondering on the Word of God, saying ‘Yes’ to it and patiently waiting for it to be born anew in his own heart and in the world.