These are all helpful reminders. The setting itself can matter greatly in helping our silence to be fruitful. I am pretty bad at it myself. Yet when I have experienced prayer spaces/rooms that illustrate what you are saying, I know how powerful it can be.
I can see how unprepared prisoners forced into isolation to contemplate the s…
These are all helpful reminders. The setting itself can matter greatly in helping our silence to be fruitful. I am pretty bad at it myself. Yet when I have experienced prayer spaces/rooms that illustrate what you are saying, I know how powerful it can be.
I can see how unprepared prisoners forced into isolation to contemplate the sins might very well go mad. In the Cloud of Unknowing the author emphasizes more than once the need for confession before beginning contemplative prayer. Of course, not everyone is part of a tradition that has confession, but the principle remains. We meet ourselves in silence and stillness, and what bubbles up can be overwhelming if one isn't prepared.
Thank you for being the first one to take up The Pascal Challenge. You got the ball rolling.
I hope you have a blessed Advent and fruitful silence! -Jack
Diana-
These are all helpful reminders. The setting itself can matter greatly in helping our silence to be fruitful. I am pretty bad at it myself. Yet when I have experienced prayer spaces/rooms that illustrate what you are saying, I know how powerful it can be.
I can see how unprepared prisoners forced into isolation to contemplate the sins might very well go mad. In the Cloud of Unknowing the author emphasizes more than once the need for confession before beginning contemplative prayer. Of course, not everyone is part of a tradition that has confession, but the principle remains. We meet ourselves in silence and stillness, and what bubbles up can be overwhelming if one isn't prepared.
Thank you for being the first one to take up The Pascal Challenge. You got the ball rolling.
I hope you have a blessed Advent and fruitful silence! -Jack