Yesterday a friend of mine spoke about the “still, small voice of God” and the need to be quiet in order to hear God’s voice. It’s not often that we hear a message in church about being silent, or the value of times of quiet reflection. But it’s possible to take a concern for the practice of silence and its use in preaching and ministry even further.
As Henri Nouwen observes, “If it is true that the word of Scripture should lead us into the silence of God, then we must be careful to use that word not simply as an interesting or motivating word, but as a word that creates the boundaries within which we can listen to the loving, caring, gentle presence of God” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page 44).
“The simple words ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ can be spoken quietly and persistently in such a way that they become like a hedge around a garden in which God’s shepherding can be sensed . . .These words . . . can slowly descend from the mind into the heart. There they may offer the context in which an inner transformation, by the God who transcends all human words and concepts, can take place” (page 45).
So silence can shape a kind of meditative preaching in which time to reflect, time for silent meditation, time for listening prayer, time for the Spirit’s own work, time for God’s living Word, are all more important than the many words that are usually the centerpiece of most ordinary sermons.
As for counseling and silence, Nouwen observes
“it is also possible to experience the relationship between pastor and counselee as a way of entering together into the loving silence of God and waiting there for the healing Word . . . pastoral counseling is the attempt to lead fearful parishioners into the silence of God, and to help them feel at home there, trusting that they will slowly discover the healing presence of the Spirit” (pages 45-46).
Perhaps Nouwen’s most relevant insight for ministers is his observation that “In a society in which entertainment and distraction are such important preoccupations, ministers are also tempted to join the ranks of those who consider it their primary task to keep other people busy” . . . instead “the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence” (pages 46-47).
Nouwen adds one final caution to this series of reflections: “Charity, not silence is the purpose of the spiritual life and of ministry.” Be sure to wrap your preaching, counseling, and organizing in the love of God and a genuine love for His people.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
How Can We Practice a Ministry of Silence?
This is the next question that Henri Nouwen tackles for us. He says “It requires a strenuous discipline to make our ministry one that leads our people into the silence of God. That is the task Jesus has given us. The whole of Jesus’ ministry pointed away from himself to the Father who had sent him. To his disciples Jesus said, ‘The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself; it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work’ (John 14:10). Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, spoke not to attract attention to himself but to show the way to his Father: ‘I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I leave the world to go to the Father’ (John 16:28). ‘I am going to prepare a place for you . . . so that where I am you may be too’ (John 14:2-3) (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page 42).
After noting the overly chatty nature of contemporary society, Nouwen concludes by observing that the sensitive use of silence in ministry (especially during quiet periods in corporate worship services) can move people towards an experience of God as a God of love: “couldn’t this be accomplished by gently and carefully converting the empty silence into a full silence, the anxious silence into a peaceful silence, and the restless silence into a restful silence, so that in this converted silence a real encounter with the loving Father could take place? What a power our word would have if it could enable people to befriend their silence!” (page 43).
The way Jesus spoke, and the way we speak as His followers, can influence people to begin to search for their Heavenly Father and to begin to listen to Him. As Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 14:-10 says in The Message, The Bible in Contemporary Language (NavPress, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2002):
“The words I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.”
As you minister to others may your Heavenly Father craft each word you speak so that it works divinely in the minds and hearts of those who listen. Let there be carefully crafted words accompanied by carefully crafted moments of silence.
After noting the overly chatty nature of contemporary society, Nouwen concludes by observing that the sensitive use of silence in ministry (especially during quiet periods in corporate worship services) can move people towards an experience of God as a God of love: “couldn’t this be accomplished by gently and carefully converting the empty silence into a full silence, the anxious silence into a peaceful silence, and the restless silence into a restful silence, so that in this converted silence a real encounter with the loving Father could take place? What a power our word would have if it could enable people to befriend their silence!” (page 43).
The way Jesus spoke, and the way we speak as His followers, can influence people to begin to search for their Heavenly Father and to begin to listen to Him. As Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 14:-10 says in The Message, The Bible in Contemporary Language (NavPress, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2002):
“The words I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.”
As you minister to others may your Heavenly Father craft each word you speak so that it works divinely in the minds and hearts of those who listen. Let there be carefully crafted words accompanied by carefully crafted moments of silence.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Speaking Out of Silence
Sometimes it’s the passages that I have not underlined that stand out the most when rereading a book like The Way of The Heart. That was the case with the following excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s reflections on how “Silence Teaches us to Speak” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, pages 40-42).
According to Nouwen, silence teaches us to speak by shaping our words. Words that emerge from silence come forth in fullness and presence, he writes, when they are born in the “divine silence in which love rests secure.” Now here is the passage that stood out for me when I read it earlier this evening on my commuter train:
“Here we can glimpse the great mystery in which we participate through silence and the Word, the mystery of God’s own speaking. Out of his eternal silence God spoke the Word, and through this Word created and recreated the world. In the beginning God spoke the land, the sea, and the sky. He spoke the sun, the moon, and the stars. He spoke plants, birds, fish, animals wild and tame. Finally, he spoke man and woman. Then in the fullness of time, God’s Word, through whom all had been created, became flesh and gave power to all who believe to become the children of God. In all this, the Word of God does not break the silence of God, but rather unfolds the immeasurable richness of his silence.”
“As soon as we begin to take hold of each other by our words, and use words to defend ourselves or offend others, the word no longer speaks of silence. But when the word calls forth the healing and restoring stillness of its own silence, few words are needed: much can be said without much being spoken” (page 41).
When we speak, may we have the wisdom and courage to speak out of silence.
According to Nouwen, silence teaches us to speak by shaping our words. Words that emerge from silence come forth in fullness and presence, he writes, when they are born in the “divine silence in which love rests secure.” Now here is the passage that stood out for me when I read it earlier this evening on my commuter train:
“Here we can glimpse the great mystery in which we participate through silence and the Word, the mystery of God’s own speaking. Out of his eternal silence God spoke the Word, and through this Word created and recreated the world. In the beginning God spoke the land, the sea, and the sky. He spoke the sun, the moon, and the stars. He spoke plants, birds, fish, animals wild and tame. Finally, he spoke man and woman. Then in the fullness of time, God’s Word, through whom all had been created, became flesh and gave power to all who believe to become the children of God. In all this, the Word of God does not break the silence of God, but rather unfolds the immeasurable richness of his silence.”
“As soon as we begin to take hold of each other by our words, and use words to defend ourselves or offend others, the word no longer speaks of silence. But when the word calls forth the healing and restoring stillness of its own silence, few words are needed: much can be said without much being spoken” (page 41).
When we speak, may we have the wisdom and courage to speak out of silence.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Silence Guards the Fire Within
Last weekend our men’s Saturday morning Bible study group was challenged to consider the presence or absence of silence in our daily lives. We meditated on listening to God in 1 Samuel 3:1-21, then watched a video clip that challenged us to consider whether we welcome silence or avoid it by always turning up the volume.
Henri Nouwen asserts that silence is essential because it “Guards the Fire Within” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page 37). “Silence guards the inner heat of religious emotions. This inner heat is the life of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus, silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive.”
By way of explanation and interpretation, Nouwen then expounds on quotations provided first by a certain Diadochus of Photiki, who wrote about “Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination,” as quoted in volume one of The Philokalia (London &Boston: Faber & Faber, 1979). A second quotation comes from James O. Hannay's book The Wisdom of the Desert (London: Methuen, 1904, pages 205-206).
As Nouwen writes, “Diadochus of Photiki offers us a very concrete image: ‘When the door of the steambath is continually left open, the heat inside rapidly escapes through it; likewise the soul, in its desire to say many things, dissipates its remembrance of God through the door of speech, even though everything it says may be good . . . Ideas of value always shun verbosity, being foreign to confusion and fantasy. Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less than the mother of the wisest thoughts.’”
Commenting on the sayings of the Desert Fathers, James Hannay writes: “The mouth is not a door through which any evil enters. The ears are such doors as are the eyes. The mouth is a door only for exit. What was it that they [the Desert Fathers] feared to let go out? What was it which someone might steal out of their hearts, as a thief takes the steed from the stable when the door is left open? It can have been nothing else than the force of religious emotion.”
“What needs to be guarded is the life of the Spirit within us. Especially we who want to witness to the presence of God’s Spirit in the world need to tend the fire within with the utmost care,” writes Nouwen (page 39).
“It is as if we are not sure that God’s Spirit can touch the hearts of people: we have to help him out and, with many words, convince others of his power. But it is precisely this wordy unbelief that quenches the fire.
“Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers.”
Henri Nouwen asserts that silence is essential because it “Guards the Fire Within” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page 37). “Silence guards the inner heat of religious emotions. This inner heat is the life of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus, silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive.”
By way of explanation and interpretation, Nouwen then expounds on quotations provided first by a certain Diadochus of Photiki, who wrote about “Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination,” as quoted in volume one of The Philokalia (London &Boston: Faber & Faber, 1979). A second quotation comes from James O. Hannay's book The Wisdom of the Desert (London: Methuen, 1904, pages 205-206).
As Nouwen writes, “Diadochus of Photiki offers us a very concrete image: ‘When the door of the steambath is continually left open, the heat inside rapidly escapes through it; likewise the soul, in its desire to say many things, dissipates its remembrance of God through the door of speech, even though everything it says may be good . . . Ideas of value always shun verbosity, being foreign to confusion and fantasy. Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less than the mother of the wisest thoughts.’”
Commenting on the sayings of the Desert Fathers, James Hannay writes: “The mouth is not a door through which any evil enters. The ears are such doors as are the eyes. The mouth is a door only for exit. What was it that they [the Desert Fathers] feared to let go out? What was it which someone might steal out of their hearts, as a thief takes the steed from the stable when the door is left open? It can have been nothing else than the force of religious emotion.”
“What needs to be guarded is the life of the Spirit within us. Especially we who want to witness to the presence of God’s Spirit in the world need to tend the fire within with the utmost care,” writes Nouwen (page 39).
“It is as if we are not sure that God’s Spirit can touch the hearts of people: we have to help him out and, with many words, convince others of his power. But it is precisely this wordy unbelief that quenches the fire.
“Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers.”
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Silence--a Home for the Word
“Silence is the home of the word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the word,” writes Henri Nouwen (The Way of the Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page 34).
Instead of silence, noise and busyness is more often the background and springboard for many of today’s communicators. For all who would communicate God’s Word a rediscovery of the value of silence will be essential. As you spend quiet time immersed in the Bible, a book, reviewing an article, or reading pages online as you prepare to write or speak—cherish the silence.
“How seldom have long talks proved to be good and fruitful? Would not many if not most of the words we use be better left unspoken? We speak about the events of the world, but how often do we really change them for the better?
"We speak about people and their ways, but how often do our words do them or us any good? We speak about our ideas and feelings as if everyone were interested in them, but how often do we really feel understood? We speak a great deal about God and religion, but how often does it bring us or others real insight?”(The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, pages 36-37).
Let silence do its work in your heart and mind as you gather thoughts and words and prepare to share them with others. Listen first in silence.
“Just as the rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them” (Isaiah 55:10-11, The Message).
Instead of silence, noise and busyness is more often the background and springboard for many of today’s communicators. For all who would communicate God’s Word a rediscovery of the value of silence will be essential. As you spend quiet time immersed in the Bible, a book, reviewing an article, or reading pages online as you prepare to write or speak—cherish the silence.
“How seldom have long talks proved to be good and fruitful? Would not many if not most of the words we use be better left unspoken? We speak about the events of the world, but how often do we really change them for the better?
"We speak about people and their ways, but how often do our words do them or us any good? We speak about our ideas and feelings as if everyone were interested in them, but how often do we really feel understood? We speak a great deal about God and religion, but how often does it bring us or others real insight?”(The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, pages 36-37).
Let silence do its work in your heart and mind as you gather thoughts and words and prepare to share them with others. Listen first in silence.
“Just as the rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them” (Isaiah 55:10-11, The Message).
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Towards an Understanding of Solitude
Henri Nouwen titled his chapter on solitude ‘The Furnace of Transformation’ because that’s where ‘stuff comes up’ according to a speaker I heard recently. Here’s how Nouwen himself explains what solitude is in The Way of The Heart and why we need it:
“In order to understand the meaning of solitude, we must first unmask the ways in which the idea of solitude has been distorted by our world. We say to each other that we need some solitude in our lives.
“What we really are thinking of, however, is a time and a place for ourselves in which we are not bothered by other people, can think our own thoughts, express our own complaints, and do our own thing, whatever it may be. For us solitude most often means privacy. We have come to the dubious conviction that we all have a right to privacy. Solitude thus becomes like a spiritual property for which we can compete on the free market of spiritual goods.
“But there is more. We also think of solitude as a station where we can recharge our batteries, or as the corner of the boxing ring where our wounds are oiled, our muscles massaged, and our courage restored by fitting slogans. In short, we think of solitude as a place where we gather new strength to continue the ongoing competition in life.
“But that is not the solitude of St. John the Baptist, of St. Anthony or St. Benedict, of Charles de Foucauld or the brothers of Taize. For them solitude is not a private, therapeutic place.
“Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, pages14-15).
“In order to understand the meaning of solitude, we must first unmask the ways in which the idea of solitude has been distorted by our world. We say to each other that we need some solitude in our lives.
“What we really are thinking of, however, is a time and a place for ourselves in which we are not bothered by other people, can think our own thoughts, express our own complaints, and do our own thing, whatever it may be. For us solitude most often means privacy. We have come to the dubious conviction that we all have a right to privacy. Solitude thus becomes like a spiritual property for which we can compete on the free market of spiritual goods.
“But there is more. We also think of solitude as a station where we can recharge our batteries, or as the corner of the boxing ring where our wounds are oiled, our muscles massaged, and our courage restored by fitting slogans. In short, we think of solitude as a place where we gather new strength to continue the ongoing competition in life.
“But that is not the solitude of St. John the Baptist, of St. Anthony or St. Benedict, of Charles de Foucauld or the brothers of Taize. For them solitude is not a private, therapeutic place.
“Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs” (The Way of The Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, pages14-15).
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Way of The Heart
The cover is faded. The broken spine carefully taped together. The 78 pages (plus three pages of notes) are now yellowing with age. But my personal copy of The Way of The Heart by Henri Nouwen (Ballantine Books, 1983) is a favorite book that often accompanies me when I travel and almost always comes along when I take some personal time off. This may be the book I’ve recommended more than any other to friends and family members.
Each time I open my battered and heavily underlined paperback copy, Henri Nouwen’s gently probing questions and quiet reflections spark a desire to travel back in time with him into the fourth century to listen to what the Desert Fathers and Mothers have to say to us regarding the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence and Prayer.
Nouwen recalls how this book originated in a seminar he taught at the Yale Divinity School on the spirituality of the desert. Five women and eleven men from 10 different denominations “gradually came to see the ‘way of the heart’ as the way that united us in spite of our many historical, theological, and psychological differences” (The Way of the Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page vii).
When he penned his prologue, he set the context with these timeless words:
“It seems that the darkness is thicker than ever, that the powers of evil are more blatantly visible than ever, and that the children of God are being tested more severely than ever. During the last few years I have been wondering what it means to be a minister in such a situation” (The Way of the Heart, pages1-2).
The Way of The Heart is written especially to women and men called to minister to others in Christ’s name “to bring light into the darkness, ‘to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor’ (Luke 4:18-19).” (The Way of the Heart, page 2).
“In this fearful and painful period of our history we who minister in parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, and prisons are having a difficult time fulfilling our task of making the light of Christ shine into the darkness.” Here are some of the questions Nouwen invites us to consider in light of the contexts in which we live and seek to minister:
• “What is required of a man or a woman who is called to enter fully into the turmoil and agony of the times and speak a word of hope?”
• “How can we expect to remain full of creative vitality, of zeal for the Word of God, of desire to serve, and of motivation to inspire our often numbed congregations?
• “Where are we supposed to find nurture and strength?
• “How can we alleviate our own spiritual hunger and thirst?”
Reading and re-reading The Way of The Heart is one way to begin a search for personal and lasting answers. But the path Nouwen maps out may be as challenging as your most rigorous workout regime. Concluding the prologue he writes:
“The words flee, be silent and pray summarize the spirituality of the desert. They indicate the three ways of preventing the world from shaping us in its image and thus the three ways to life in the Spirit.
“My first task is to explore what it means for us to flee from the world. This raises the question of solitude. My second task is to define silence as an essential element of a spirituality of ministry. Finally, I want to challenge you with the vocation to pray always” (The Way of the Heart, page 4).
May you discover the radical personal benefits of solitude, silence and prayer.
Each time I open my battered and heavily underlined paperback copy, Henri Nouwen’s gently probing questions and quiet reflections spark a desire to travel back in time with him into the fourth century to listen to what the Desert Fathers and Mothers have to say to us regarding the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence and Prayer.
Nouwen recalls how this book originated in a seminar he taught at the Yale Divinity School on the spirituality of the desert. Five women and eleven men from 10 different denominations “gradually came to see the ‘way of the heart’ as the way that united us in spite of our many historical, theological, and psychological differences” (The Way of the Heart, Ballantine Books, 1983, page vii).
When he penned his prologue, he set the context with these timeless words:
“It seems that the darkness is thicker than ever, that the powers of evil are more blatantly visible than ever, and that the children of God are being tested more severely than ever. During the last few years I have been wondering what it means to be a minister in such a situation” (The Way of the Heart, pages1-2).
The Way of The Heart is written especially to women and men called to minister to others in Christ’s name “to bring light into the darkness, ‘to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor’ (Luke 4:18-19).” (The Way of the Heart, page 2).
“In this fearful and painful period of our history we who minister in parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, and prisons are having a difficult time fulfilling our task of making the light of Christ shine into the darkness.” Here are some of the questions Nouwen invites us to consider in light of the contexts in which we live and seek to minister:
• “What is required of a man or a woman who is called to enter fully into the turmoil and agony of the times and speak a word of hope?”
• “How can we expect to remain full of creative vitality, of zeal for the Word of God, of desire to serve, and of motivation to inspire our often numbed congregations?
• “Where are we supposed to find nurture and strength?
• “How can we alleviate our own spiritual hunger and thirst?”
Reading and re-reading The Way of The Heart is one way to begin a search for personal and lasting answers. But the path Nouwen maps out may be as challenging as your most rigorous workout regime. Concluding the prologue he writes:
“The words flee, be silent and pray summarize the spirituality of the desert. They indicate the three ways of preventing the world from shaping us in its image and thus the three ways to life in the Spirit.
“My first task is to explore what it means for us to flee from the world. This raises the question of solitude. My second task is to define silence as an essential element of a spirituality of ministry. Finally, I want to challenge you with the vocation to pray always” (The Way of the Heart, page 4).
May you discover the radical personal benefits of solitude, silence and prayer.
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