Silence is the root of our union with God and with one another. In silence we are filled with the energy of God Himself that makes us do all things in joy. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Love to be silent rather than to speak; for silence saves up, but speaking fritters away.
–Isaiah (a Desert Father)
In Silence God ceases to be an object and becomes an experience.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
We must respond to God’s gifts gladly and freely with thanksgiving, happiness and joy: but in contemplation we thank Him less by words than by the serene happiness of silent acceptance. “Be empty and see that I am God.” It is our emptiness in the presence of the abyss of His reality, our silence in the presence of His infinitely rich silence, our joy in the bosom of the serene darkness in which His light holds us absorbed, it is all this that praises Him. It is this that causes love of God and wonder and adoration to swim up into us like tidal waves out of the depths of that peace, and break upon the shores of our consciousness in a vast, hushed surf of inarticulate praise, praise and glory!
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Even amid the “busy-ness” and the stress of our daily lives, we need to make space for silence, because it is in silence that we find God, and in silence that we discover our true self. And in discovering our true self, we discover the particular vocation which God has given us for the building up of his Church and the redemption of our world.
–Pope Benedict XVI (1927-
Silence illuminates our souls, whispers to our hearts, and brings them together.
–Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
