Stillness for Prayer

Stillness is an important part of prayer.

 

The psalmist sings, “Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10) In that stillness and in
that moment of silence, the psalmist felt connected to something much greater than himself.
Unfortunately, most of the people who live in contemporary culture are plagued by tensions that
make it almost impossible for them to be quiet. There is so much going on; drills that rip up concrete, traffic in the background, the hum of technology in your house or surroundings, or background music. There is so much noise both inside and outside of our minds. Our culture is almost a culture of noise. It appears to be intervened with most of the
aspects of our contemporary lives.

 

Many spiritual directors on prayer, at the beginning of each session on prayer, suggest a stillness exercise and lead through it. If we want to learn to pray, we must first learn to quiet ourselves and to be still. St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “We do not even know how to pray, but spirit prays within us (Rom 8:26). The Benedictine priest, John Main OSB, who has deep experience of Christian contemplation and prayer, interpreted this verse of St. Paul as follows;

 

“What this means in the language of our own day is that before we can pray we have first to
become still to concentrate. Only then can we enter into a loving awareness of the spirit of
Jesus within our hearts.”

 

Hence, in order to experience a deep prayer life, silence and inner stillness is necessary and
they play a great role in our prayer life. And this inner quietness and stillness in itself becomes a
prayer before God. It is because God manifests Himself in the form of stillness. St. Cyprian, in his
treatise on the “Lord’s Prayer” shows some relevant observations on silence and stillness as he notes, “For God hears our hearts, not our voice.”

 

Speaking about stillness, it is not a state that is opposite to movement or a state of numbness
or escapism or being mute. Rather, it is an energetic quality of being. Stillness as an energetic quality of being is naturally present in the heart of every human being. Stillness and silence as part of our natural state of being; they are universal elements of the human spirit. Even the Lord reveals Himself to us in stillness saying, “Be still and know that I am God.” We Christians often interpret this call to be “still” as “to be quiet in the presence of God.

 

Prayer is more than becoming aware who we are in the presence of God. In fact, prayer is a loving encounter and a relationship between God and us in which we become aware of who we are. Prayer is mostly listening to God’s Word within us. Ultimately, in genuine prayer we simply allow God to work in our souls.

 

To hear the voice of God is something that we all long for. And God wants us to hear His voice. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that God spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden. He also asked Noah to build an ark. Then, God also spoke to Moses in a burning bush. The prophets heard the voice of God speaking to them. In the Same way, God speaks to us today into our hearts just as he spoke to our ancestors in our stillness and silence. An insight that most spiritual writers state is; the quieter we become the more we can hear. Whatever you hear, notice these noises, and let them go… focus on the life-giving breath that God has given to us… concentrate on inhaling and exhaling… remain settled like this for a few moments… That will prepare us to enter into prayer.

 

— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D