Seeking Silence. What is it?

It’s very practical, and none of these things can happen without it: preaching and worship, visiting and counseling. That’s what silence is. It’s really concrete, and it’s practical. It’s a useful discipline in everything that we do. Practicing this self-discipline is a “portable hermitage cell” which you can take with you, a quality of the heart you can enter into. That’s what the Desert Fathers and Mothers were trying to do.

The rhythm of the desert, like the camel gait, is like that of these hermits who invite you to silence: to go slower, to step out of your frenetic pace, the pace of the world, and to listen. St. Simon listened first, then he went out. Learn from him that silence is essential for many different things in our lives, most especially your relationship with God!