On Silence and Solitude (II)
A catena of sayings, drawn at random from the desert ascetics of the early Christian centuries, well expresses the value and necessity of authentic silence, silence of the heart.
“A brother asked Abba Pambo if it is good to praise one’s neighbor, and the old man said to him, ‘It is better to be silent.’”
“A brother asked Abba Poemen, ‘Is it better to speak or to be silent?’ The old man said to him, ‘The man who speaks for God’s sake does well; but he who is silent for God’s sake also does well.”
“It was said of Abba Agatho that for three years he carried a stone in his mouth until he learned to be silent.”
St Diodochos of Photiki, a fifth century anti-monophysite bishop well versed in the desert monastic tradition, explained the purpose and fruit of silence in these words. “Spiritual knowledge comes through prayer, deep stillness and complete detachment….” And he adds, “When the soul’s incensive power is aroused against the passions, we should know that it is time for silence, since the hour of battle is at hand.”
Silence and stillness are essential to attain spiritual knowledge, to engage in spiritual warfare against the passions and against demonic powers, and to allow the voice of God to be heard. Silence and stillness nevertheless require a certain degree of solitude, a temporary withdrawing from the noise and busyness of the world that cause endless distractions and hinder us in our quest for God.
“A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, ‘Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.’”
Perhaps the greatest challenge to authentic Orthodox Christian life today, at least in the United States, is to transform the heart and mind, our inner being, into a place of silence and solitude.
Silence enables us to hear ineffable speech, the words of God that touch, guide and heal, while solitude makes us aware of the discreet yet infinitely powerful presence of the One who is with us “until the end of the age.”
These two virtues, silence and solitude, enable us to transcend the emptiness of our life. They open the way to a new state of being that to most people seems paradoxical and unattainable: “to be alone yet know no loneliness.”
In the noise and confusion of the world around us, apprenticeship in the virtues of silence and solitude transforms us at the deepest level of our being. By the grace of God, it creates of the heart of every person who seeks it, a sacred space, an interior monastic cell, a dwelling place for the Spirit of Truth, who teaches, guides, preserves and blesses us as we journey toward the Kingdom of Heaven.
~Adapted from the Very Rev. John Breck, Life in Christ, Orthodox Church in America (oca.org), February 02, 2005
