"AMASC Projects/Against Poverty"

----GLOBAL CALL AGAINST POVERTY

---POVERTY IN COMMUNICATION
“The deepest level of communication is not communication. It is communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words; and it is beyond speech; and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear (sisters and) brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are” (Thomas Merton)

When silence between two people is comfortable there is no poverty of communication. We should reflect on the “comfortable silence” that can be created in our daily encounters and in our life in general.

Let’s start with this piece by Beatrice Bruteau.
SILENCE
Relaxing our compulsion to talk can be very illuminating to us. We will be obliged to ask ourselves whence this urgency arises.

What insecurity about our existence makes us want to chatter about trivia?
Do we have to reassure ourselves that we are not isolated?
That we are living in a common world?
Do we need to draw the attention of other people to ourselves, as if their recognition of us helps sustain us?
Do we keep distracting ourselves by a running commentary on superficial events lest we fall back into a realization of the fundamental mystery of our existential situation?

When we undertake to keep silence for a given period, as for instance on a silent retreat for a weekend or for eight days, if the silence is a problem for us, we can pay attention to what kind of discomfort we are experiencing. What we feel we are lacking, what we are afraid of. We can notice what we do to compensate for the speech-silence.

Do we try to catch others’ eyes and smile or wink or make gestures?
Do we try to stay in sight of others?
Do we read books or engage in imaginary conversations?
Or, do we find the silence tranquilizing, liberating, even exhilarating?
Do we instinctively keep our eyes to ourselves, go off alone in the woods, spend time gazing out over the landscape?
Do we find that even our usual internal conversation is quieting down?
Perhaps all sorts of interior movements are coming to a halt, settling into stillness and repose. And we ourselves seem to be drawing to the center, as if to the lowest and most natural place to come to rest.
What about our prayer? Is God just somebody to talk to?
Are we pouring out to God all the words we are holding in, not speaking to fellow human beings?

That’s not silence.

See what happens if you stop talking to God, too. Be vividly in God’s presence, but don’t say anything. And don’t imagine God talking to you, either. Both of you be quiet, just be together and enjoy it. What happens?

The practice of silence forces us to deeper levels of reality. Deprived of distraction, we must either panic or come to a new kind of authenticity. To avoid the horror of existential isolation, we must open ourselves to experience our union with the natural world, with the human world, and with God, without the cover-up tht prattling had afforded us. Like the proto-amphibian stranded by a receding flood, we must learn to breathe in a new medium. We must learn to breathe trust, the unspoken communion.

Radical Optimism: Practical Spirituality in an Uncertain World
Beatrice Bruteau, Sentient Publications 2004, pp. 30,31

Now let’s look at this reflection by Fr Michael Casey OCSO
“The Value of Silence"
When a plane lands or a funeral ends, the first thing that many people do is to check their mobile phones. If there are no messages they seem visibly crestfallen, as if the world had forgotten them for a time. This is but one manifestation of how we like to stay in touch with others. We are social by nature and being alone can be a frightening experience. Communication with others is imperative for our sense of well-being.

There is, however, another dimension of human life where we experience the joy of solitude and taste the freedom that comes when we are able to withdraw from the noise and involvement of social interaction to reach the level of the heart. The fact is that we are not only creatures with a need for others. Each of us is unique and original and we need time and space apart to grow into whatever is essential for freedom and human dignity.

Solitude and silence give us the opportunity to close out many external voices that claim our immediate attention and are trying to shape our choices and our future. We need to learn how to keep our need for noise and entertainment to a minimum as a first step to a more intense spiritual life. If this is successful, we can begin to struggle against a greater hindrance, the inner noise that comes from deep within us: old resentments, fantasies, ambitions as well as various forms of self-programming. This source of disturbance is harder to still, but any progress we make will be liberating.

We can sometimes find silence in a crowded place, but most often we need to be imaginative in making opportunities for ourselves to enjoy our own interior space: a quiet seat in a garden, walking the dog, painting a fence, listening to music, long-distance driving, ironing, weeding a flowerbed, reflective reading. Many recreational activities and manual tasks can become rich inner experiences if we learn to resist the temptation to fill them with noise and distraction.
Silence is a spiritual discipline that has many advantages at all stages of development, but especially at the beginning, when we are just starting to acquire the taste for spiritual realities. Without some measure of silence no advancement in interiority is possible.

Here are some of the advantages to be discovered in the practise of silence that are worth pondering:
• By reducing the level of physical noise we attain stillness and peace that refresh us and allow us to recuperate from the pressures of modern life. For some people engaging in much conversation is tiring: silence is a means of conserving energy.
• Relationships that do not provide time and space for solitude and silence quickly become tyrannical. Notice that many totalitarian societies such as North Korea have loudspeakers in every street with a constant barrage of propaganda and patriotic music. The aim is obviously to stop people thinking alternative thoughts; to deprive them of the freedom to become something different.
• Maintaining a guard over what we say is a good way of preserving charity and helps us to avoid sins of the tongue (James 3:1-12)
• We cannot speak and listen at the same time. Those who cannot keep quiet are poor listeners and, as such, they are unable to support others who need a friend with whom they can share something profound.
• Without some degree of external and interior silence it is impossible to concentrate on any task; we are constantly assailed by distractions and so we often leave projects unfinished.
• Without silence it is impossible to arrive at a good level of spiritual literacy, so that we are able to read the inner movements of the Spirit as a first step in conforming our lives to divine guidance.
• We need leisure if we are to expose ourselves to the Word of God and give ourselves time and space to ponder its meaning in our lives.
• To give ourselves fully to God in prayer we need to create a sphere of silence in which God alone is present to us.
Most of us have undiscovered depths of spirituality within us, little experiences, insights, feelings, values, and aspirations. Too often they remain underdeveloped: we do not give them the opportunity to grow and so begin to shape our lives. All of us can be better people – that is, people more like what God intends – by following three simple steps on a regular basis.
1. Turn off the noise
2. Sit down and be quiet; chase away intrusive thoughts as you would flies
3. Say to God, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9)

Prayer is more God’s work than ours: our task is simply to make room for the coming of the Lord, to open our spiritual windows and doors, and to be prepared to be surprised. Without silence, prayer is always a struggle. Without prayer, Christian life itself is prone to falter.”