A Silence That Speaks

Vercors Silence

Today we visited Helsinki, the second port of call of a Cruise on the Baltic Sea. Finland boasts a great composer in Sibelius who composed the well loved anthem, Finlandia. The tour guide told me that although Mr Sibelius travelled the world, most of his compositions were inspired and written in Finland. He had a famous quotation “In Finland there is a silence that speaks”. By this, he meant that he found the peace and quiet of his country especially inspiring.

Sibelius Memorial Helsinki

A silence that speaks - this phrase resonated with my soul when I first heard this as I viewed the countryside around Helsinki. In case you have not noticed, I have not been able to post in Contemplation for many months. It seems that the quiet whispers of God speaking to my soul and spirit have gone. If it had been present, as it surely must have been, it was simply ignored and shut out. Days turned to weeks and weeks to months, still there was no inspiration. I simply did not enjoy any contemplative moment. I was too hurried. I need to shut out the noise of a busy life, keep still, enjoy the silence and hear God’s inspiration.

Pastor Lay Suan shared, "Stillness is always a prerequisite for receptivity. Telephones and television sets cannot receive messages when they are too filled with static and noise. Stillness first then later, listening. The order cannot be reversed. "Be still, and know that I am God," quotes the psalmist”. She shared from Psalms 131:

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high ….

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.”

Kent Nerburn spoke of being in Saskatchewan once. The wind there was extremely strong and loud to him, a newcomer to the area. But the people in that part of Canada were so used to this wind that they hardly noticed its presence. So too is the voice of God. It is always present but we fail to give it the correct attention because life itself, like the Saskatchewan wind, sound-surrounds and shuts out God’s voice.

Too often we are deaf to God’s voice. We are busy with our daily obligations and too occupied with our daily activities. If we are to listen above the noise, we have to calm and quiet our soul like a weaned child, a child no longer hooked on the distractions of the busy life.

But God’s voice like the wind does not stop, it just drops down to a whisper. Does this happen ever so often in your life? Our own self importance, our self directedness stifles the God given instinct for communication and communion. When we learn to wean off the voices of the world, then perhaps we can start to listen to the voice of God.

There is a mountain in the middle of France near the town of Grenoble on which a monastery was founded by St Bruno. It is called the Grand Chartreuse. For nine centuries, contemplative Catholic monks and nuns of the Carthusian Order, have been faithful to the vocation of solitude. There in the stillness of the surrounding countryside, the brothers pray and live their lives in silence not speaking to each other except for a few days in a year. Yet, the testimonies of the monks speak of knowing God, the world, society and humankind in depth and truthfulness. Was it not, Mahatma Gandhi who said “It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart?” The Carthusian monks knew this secret centuries ago.

Lionel