“We all long for loving community. It enhances life’s joy. But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” —Continue reading “Friendships are not escapes from loneliness”
Tag Archives: Solitude
The way of silence
It has become an annual habit of mine to get away in silence and solitude for a few days. It takes days because the first half of the silence is about getting the mind geared down.
The place of quiet
When we will shut up, God will show up.
The silence and the solitude
Dallas Willard says that practicing solitude with silence are the most important spiritual disciplines for people today, especially pastors. In our busy, noisy world we need to “unhook” and get away in order to be alone and be ourselves with our Lord.
Into the silence
God will show up if I just shut up.
The gift of silence and solitude
“The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find Him unless He shows Himself to us, and yet at the same time that He would not have inspired us to seek Him unless we had already found Him.” ― Thomas Merton, ThoughtsContinue reading “The gift of silence and solitude”
The beauty of silence
Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. — Henri Nouwen
Merton’s prophetic words on the absence of silence
“When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, then society in which they live becomesContinue reading “Merton’s prophetic words on the absence of silence”
The gift of silence
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. — Mother Teresa
Prayer and Waiting
Solid advice from Richard Foster and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 