A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals
an ancient Christian view that the foundation of every land is silence (Ws 18:14), where God simply and perpetually gives Himself, This Self-gift is manifested in the creation, in the people of God and their inspired (if stumbling) pursuit of a just society, and most fully, in the Christian view of things, in Jesus Christ.
Martin Laird • Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation
Sit down alone and in silence.
—St. Symeon the New Theologian
Saint Isaac the Syrian wrote, “The Love of God proceeds from our conversing with Him; this conversation of prayer comes about through stillness, and stillness arrives with the stripping away of self.”
Tish Harrison Warren • Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep
The silence and stillness of meditation is the bedrock upon which this teaching rests. It fosters an inward stability, objectivity, non-attachment, and depth of understanding unknown to the conceptual mind. Formal meditation is done best while sitting (or lying down if absolutely necessary) in a location where you will not be interrupted. The attit
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