Our need for moments of silence

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

ESPECIALLY nowadays when we are practically constantly teased and tickled by all sorts of things, our attention grabbed here and there, often plunging us into an uncontrolled and unregulated drive, we should feel the great need for us to have a moment of silence.

It is when we have a moment of silence that we can recover our proper bearing where our spiritual faculties of intelligence and will are properly in place and directed, functioning as they should.

What often happens is that our primary powers that should guide us, that actually give us the proper light and direction, are sidelined, and we put ourselves at the mercy of the blind urges of our senses, emotions, passions, and of the many worldly curiosities we have, etc.

Silence is a basic necessity for us. Even if we are meant to immerse ourselves in the middle of the world, actively involving ourselves in our earthly affairs, we should see to it that we also have time for silence and recollection. In fact, the more involved we are in our temporal affairs, the greater the need for us to have these moments of silence.

That is why Christ himself, in spite of the hectic redemptive work he did, going from place to another, preaching, healing and curing many people of their illnesses, always found time to have some moments of silence to talk with the Father.

In fact, he often would get up early in the morning, way before sunrise, to fulfill this very important duty, even if we can say that he actually would not need it, since he is God himself. But no, he had to do it, because he is also man, and he wants us to learn an important lesson from his example.

We should develop this discipline of looking for the right place and atmosphere of silence and recollection to do our most important duty to pray, which is how we can get intimate with our Father God. Let’s remember that we would be completely helpless if we are not without God. Even if we think we are strong enough to be on our own, without God we are actually nothing. Let us not fool ourselves.

When we have these moments of silence and manage to get recollected, we would clearly know that we need God who is the foundation of our existence, that we need Christ who is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, that we need the Holy Spirit who keeps the presence of God alive in us.

In fact, when we have these moments of silence and recollection, we get in touch with the basic, indispensable truths that we often take for granted when we busy ourselves with our earthly affairs.

We cannot deny that it is when we manage to have silence and recollection that we can listen more to the voice of God who is actually always intervening in our life. We would become more discerning of God’s will and ways, and more able to be docile to him.

We obviously have to do a lot of self-denial to achieve this ideal condition for prayer. But we should not be surprised by this and should be eager to go through them. Among the things we can do in this regard are to always give priority to a time of prayer and meditation and to look for the appropriate place and time for it. Such effort will all be worthwhile. It gives us the best deal.

When we manage to have these moments of silence and recollection, it is likely that we can maintain a contemplative lifestyle even in the midst of our very active, hectic day. We would be seeing God everywhere, in everything and in everyone.

Let’s help each other feel the need for these moments of silence and recollection!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com