Silence
By Fr. Francoïs de Ruijte, OFM

Silence is a place
Where I can meet myself in depth.
Silence is a place
Where I can meet my God.
Silence is a place
Where I meet you and you anew.
Silence is a place
Where friendship grows.
Silence is a place
Where closeness is found.
Silence is a place
Where you and I are one.
Silence is a place
To rediscover the child within ourselves.
Silence is a place
Where I can learn to hear.
Silence is a place
Where plays a symphony of insights.
Silence is a place
Where sound gets back its place.
Silence is a place
To drink deep from the fountain of reality
In a world of illusions.
Silence is a place
To enter into communion
And to expand into the universe.
Silence is a place
Where it is good to read a book
Slowly, absorbingly, meditatively,
Like the Bible.

(Theology)

Silence is a sanctuary
To listen to the Spirit.
Silence is a place
Where God’s Spirit inspires our spirit
To act, to commit ourselves, to pray, to adore.
Silence is a place
Where God’s throne is located.
Silence is a place
Where, in the beginning, God created heaven and earth
And saw it was good.
Silence is a place
Where visions take place. (Daniel 8:26-27)
Silence is a place
Where the whole earth should be before Yahweh
Who is in his holy Temple. (Habakkuk 2:20)
Silence is a place
Where God’s all-powerful Word leapt down from heaven. (Wisdom 18:14-15)
Silence is a place
Where we wait for Yahweh to save. (Lamentations 3:20)
Silence is a place
Where a shrewd man keeps safe. (Ecclesiasticus 20:1)
Silence is a place
Where I keep my soul
Like a child in its mother’s arms. (Psalm 131:2)
Silence is a place
Where the dead cannot praise Yahweh. (Psalm 115:17)
Silence is a place
Where, for endless ages, was kept the revelation of a mystery,
The proclamation of Jesus Christ,
The call of the pagans to salvation. (Romans 16:25-26)

(Spirituality)

Silence is a place
To sing “Jesus! Jesus!”
Silence is a place
To dialogue with our guardian angel.
Silence is a place
To remember our deceased parents and friends.
Silence is a place
Where the deceased speak to us.
Silence is a place
To prepare for heaven.
Silence is a place
Where the human heart encounters the Absolute.
Silence is a place
Where blossoms God’s joy.

(Morality, 6)

Silence is a place
Where the conscience remembers.
Silence is a place
Where “is often guilt instead of golden.” (Braude)
Silence is a place
Where all our faults are pardoned,
And Yahweh renews his covenant with us. (Ezekiel 16:62-63)
Silence is a place
Where charity prevails.
Silence is a place
Where our heavenly Father speaks to us in love.
Silence is a place
Where God sees your doing a good deed.

(Franciscan)

Silence is a place
Where the Man of Assisi found the inspiration
To pray “My God and my All”.
Silence is a place
Which Clare and her sisters
Use as a training-ground for contemplation.
Silence is a place
Where hermit and monk
Unearth values for living.
Silence is a place
Where preacher and priest
Hear the whisper of God.

(Nature)

Silence is a place
Where sister Snow flake visits the earth.
Silence is a place
Where sister rain drop drenches the soil.
Silence is a place
Where brother sun ray warms our skins.
Silence is a place
Where sister moon smiles in the sky.
Silence is a place
Where sisters stars flicker at the firmament.
Silence is a place
Where the flower drops its seed.
Silence is a place
Where the night is richer than the day.
Silence is a place
Where night prepares the coming day.
Silence is a place
Where life is conceived
And death is deceived.
Silence is a place
Where dark sees the light.
Silence is a place
Where time touches eternity.

(Science)

Silence is a place
Where the orchestra fills the air with its tunes.
Silence is a place
Where engines roar their noise.
Silence is a place
Where the computer searches your question.
Silence is a place
Where the surgeon’s scalpel cuts away the infection.
Silence is a place
Where cosmonauts trek through space.

(Conclusion)

Silence is a place
Where wisdom is learnt.
Silence is a place
Where solutions are found.
Silence is a place
To wake up and to plan for the day to come
Or for the future.
Silence is a place
Where it is good to rest or just to be.
Silence is a place
To write
And stop.