Silence in Spiritual Direction
I used to have a problem with silence because I had worked long and hard at finding my own voice. Practicing silence somehow felt like digressing. But being silent is different than being silenced. I have come to realize that silence actually has a voice. It is one of strength, contentment and peace, trust and surrender. It is the voice of truth and grace that embraces one’s gifts as well as one’s weaknesses.
Silence is more than an absence of noise. It’s an inner quality of being centered within oneself without wanting anything (“I shall not want”), other than the Divine presence at work within the human soul. Silence creates space to breathe, to enter an expansive grace. Silence allows a seed to grow. Silence fasts from the need to control or to say something about everything. Silence graciously opens space for others to speak and to find their own voice without imposing my own perspectives or opinions.
Spiritual direction bathes in the fountain of silence. You may wonder how that can be if the idea is to engage in conversation about all manner of life and love, loss and longings. But silence is the gift offered by a director who sits and listens, unhurried and silently present to our unfolding stories. One of my favorite authors, Martin Laird, writes in his beautiful book, Into the Silent Land, “While the discovery of this silent land is deeply personal…it is at the same time deeply communal: paradoxically, no one discovers the solitude of inner silence by oneself.”
I like this idea that we can’t find the silence on our own. For me, spiritual direction opens the door to exploring that silent inner being. Whether we practice silence through centering prayer, silent retreats, journaling and meditation, or fasting, these silent places become the fertile ground for the wisdom of the Spirit to dwell richly in us. These are the messages that we then take with us not only into spiritual direction, but into our world to illuminate the journey.
How do you define silence and what it accomplishes in your life?
