As we sit quietly in the Lord’s presence we begin to savour the sound of silence. All without is silent. All within is silent. There is just God and us. And he is silent too.

In the hushed and sacred silence, words are now mere noise. We stand in God’s presence and take a deep breath. Our whole being is gathered together in a reverent hush.

It is as if our whole being is lulled to sleep, drawn into our hearts which stand ready, expectant. We are not expecting God to say anything but we are listening. God is listening.

This is the moment when all is wrapped in silence. Maybe a word comes from deep within, or maybe not. All that matters is openness, attentiveness, alertness. Just being with God and knowing that God is with us. Not trying to understand. Just a calm letting be. The moment is a gift.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked: ‘When you pray, what do you say to God?’ She said: ‘I don’t say anything. I listen.’ Then she was asked, ‘All right. What does God say to you?’ She said: ‘God doesn’t say anything. God listens.’

And she added: ‘If you can’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.’

In daily life, when we listen to ourselves, what we usually hear is the jangled noises in our minds. In the silence we pick up another sound. When the mind becomes quiet we pick up the music that is in our hearts. That is an extraordinary discovery.

If we can silence what Augustine calls the din in the mind the inward ear, the ear of the heart, picks up that music which is everywhere, ‘if only,’ he says, ‘the world’s noise did not intrude’ (Confessions 11.10).

Augustine dares to say that if we become totally silent, in body, mind and spirit, we hear a sound that few human ears have ever heard, the sound of heaven’s music. Those who know how to be still for long periods hear the music of God’s festivity. And this finds an echo in our hearts. They begin to sing.

People who have never heard anything within except the discord of their noisy minds are surprised to find there is a song in their hearts. The touch of God in our lives seems always to stir a song in our hearts and on our lips. It is as if in any encounter with the divine the heart must sing.

The father of John the Baptist broke his long silence with a song, when his son was born. He sang of the ‘loving kindness at the heart of our God’. And Mary, mother of Jesus, when she was greeted by Elizabeth as ‘the mother of my Lord’, broke into song. She sang of the great things the Lord had done for her (Luke 1:46).

When we reach our still centre we, too, find ourselves breaking into song, a song of delight, a song of gratitude, a song of praise. We realise the absolute truth of who we are and this makes the heart sing.

An extract from Finding Your Hidden Treasure

© 2010 Benignus O’Rourke OSA

Published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd

© Photo: Ian Wilson OSA

Get the book: www.theaugustinians.org