One of my Facebook friends posted the following this morning. I do beg you to read it. It's very moving. (I'm re-posting this with her permission.)
Ranier Maria Rilke: “Our task is to listen to the news that is always arriving out of silence.”
We took a walk once the warmer weather began.
It was in one of the mini parks that are maintained in our town with a few boulders and barren trees. It was one of those times where no one was talking. We stop in front of one of the spindly trees and look at it. I don’t know if it was the desolation of the space or what but one of the youth started talking about his day. “It was bad yesterday. Everything tasted flat and there was a lot of yelling. I don’t know. I just felt like going back to bed and staying there. I tried praying but it was like there was only emptiness. I really wanted God to be there,” he ended with a plaintive tone.
Fascinated, a teen asks, “What’s it like when God is there?”
“You know,” responds the first speaker. “It’s like someone is listening and telling me that I can go on. I can’t explain it.”
I ask, “What is the difference between emptiness and silence in a prayer?”
Several attempts were made before one youth says, “Have you ever been on your cell and you are talking to someone and then you realize that no one is listening and your call has been cut off. It is not like someone is silent while you are speaking. You are just talking into nowhere. You can tell there is no one at the other end.” We laugh since we have all had that experience.
“That describes emptiness but not silence,” I say. “Were any of you uncomfortable when we were walking without talking at the beginning of the park?”
“Not for me,” declares a teen. “I was sorting through my thoughts and just looking around. We didn’t have to say anything.”
“Sometimes in prayer, it is helpful to just be open to the silence and not expect anything, especially when you don’t know what to say or imagine,” I offer. “It may feel like emptiness because you are trying to force a response rather than waiting. Praying in silence is one of the hardest holy practices we do because we are not in control of the conversation. It’s when we open ourselves up and wait.”
An older youth adds this, “I had one of those conversations with my girl. She told me she liked it when we just sat together not saying anything. And I was killing myself trying to think of something to say.” This got a big laugh.
“What did she mean?” asks one of the young ones. “I think she means that sometimes we are comfortable just sitting with each other and not having to fill in the blanks,” he replied. “But I remember also when I sat with one of my friends who had been slapped around and thrown out of his house. I didn’t have anything to say so I just sat with him. Later he thanked me for not trying to tell him something. He just couldn’t stand words at that time. It made me think. I usually fill up my prayers with a lot of talk. Maybe I could use more silence.”
I told them about the Quaker practice of prayer in silence and we tried it. No one said anything when I said amen but there were a lot of thoughtful expressions. Perhaps this Lent we are called to listen more.
In faith, Kaze
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
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