.Let us understand the difference between worldly and spiritual silence.SILENCE, & THE JESUS PRAYER
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TRANSCRIPT
In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We who live in the world can and must learn a great deal from monastics who inner silence, inner stillness. we must understand the difference between worldly silence and spiritual silence. The silence of prayer. is an absence of noise, an absence of St. John Clamarcus describes the the but to prayer within ourselves. We must listen in the silence of prayer to the prayer that takes place within Those who have spent many years saying The Jesus prayer is an important way of of guarding the inner quiet, helping to keep watch over the gateways Worldly silence of course brings to mind Unceasing prayer is the foundation of spiritual silence. Christian silence. Since we are the the temples of the Holy Spirit, we commune with God within not somewhere off in the air, within And this demands constant effort, will scream for attention constantly. And of course, no wonder so complain of insomnia or unwanted This demand of the mind for attention. Even in a dark quiet room, there are people who can who can find no But with the Jesus prayer, of course, we can walk down a busy street and still Now, of course, for those of us who are weak, it helps to to withdraw from the can shut out the distractions and the the noise both of our ears and our eyes. to find a wilderness, a desert place. And it's a requirement for every one of us to build into our lives a time and a place each day where we can retreat and Listen to God, not to the voices and the demands of our thoughts and our mind. Modern life is is unnaturally hectic. And as we're bombarded with with voices many people have grown addicted to this noise, to this distraction. It becomes an addiction. And it becomes an because they need to be distracted. They can't face what it is they see when they're truly forced to be silent. When we find true silence and we're confronted with the reality of it can be terrifying, horrific. And many people run away and allow themselves to be distracted and become addicted to this distraction rather than face this part of every Christian's life, not just the monks, must be the the pursuit of It's a requirement of us if we wish to live the Christian life to its fullest. And as we often say, silence and isn't just an escape from other people. In truth, it's only found through freedom from ourselves, we're enslaved by the ego. It constantly tries to prevent us from doing what we should do, what we must do. The ego, the mind distracts and pulls us away from what must be done in our lives. We are enslaved by our needs, our opinions. can become barriers to love. Both love that we must show others and our experience of divine love. thoughts, opinions, they form a great barrier. of the mystery of the cross. The mystery of the cross. We we only when we truly crucify the ego, the old man. We become free to love God and each other when the ego is crucified. But of course there are times in all of our lives when when God may seem silent And in those moments there are people who have a tendency to panic. They become distressed. Where is God? Has he Sometimes yes we abandon God. We we abandon God through our sin, our choice of sin. And consequently, we feel alone. And we can see this and recognize this when we know we've fallen. But there are also times when God withdraws from us simply out of love. Not out of chastisement, not because we've sinned particularly worse in that when we feel this absence, this absence of God's presence which we may have then a longing for him can grow within us. And we we can learn to crave God again. And this is God's love drawing us This absence can remind us of how how precious, how sweet God's presence truly And of course, there are times when we make ourselves so busy that we don't even try to listen to God or sometimes we we're looking for him to speak to us in ways that are familiar. We may have had an encounter with God or an experience of the presence of God and we assume that all encounters and experiences of God will fit that particular pattern. We assume we try to put God into this box and say this is how we will come to me. This is how I will find God. This is how I will But what we're doing is dictating to God through our expectations. We're trying to limit God through what we think he will do, how he will speak to us. And this is why stillness is The still the still quiet voice of God when we're filled with our thoughts and and the limitations that we try to put on God. And and of course Pride will deafen us to God. If we presume to be worthy of anything then we will never know him. We will never know him. It is the humble man who who doesn't even consider himself worthy of even a word from God who will draw closest to God. From the moment of our conception in our God is calling to us. God is is caring for us. There is no moment in our life at any point in our life when God's care inner silence isn't daydreaming. It isn't allowing our imagination and our thoughts just to tumble around. It's becoming alert to the presence of God. It's it's the abandonment of our sinful self. A turning away from our sinful self regardless regardless of everything that's going on within us. beyond the mind. It's silence that enters into the soul. a stillness that enters into the soul regardless of our thoughts, regardless of our feelings. When we enter the stillness it is filled with trust and gratitude.
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