“The grace of Easter is a profound silence, an immense peace, and a pure taste in the soul. It is the taste of heaven, away from all disordered excitement. The Paschal vision does not consist in a rapture of the spirit; it is the silent discovery of God.” Thought 205.
Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017, p. 106.
“I’m also reminded of the lesson of St. Francis where he says that it is not the preachers who will be rewarded by God for converting the masses but the contemplative brothers in the far-off and isolated hermitages scattered throughout the mountains and hills. Often it is our sacred stillness that brings the greatest missionary activity.”
Talbot, John Michael. The Universal Monk: The Way of the New Monastics. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2011, p. 72.
“‘Juniors’ on the first part of the journey invariably think that true elders are naive, simplistic, ‘out of it,’ or just superfluous. They cannot understand what they have not yet experienced. They are totally involved in their first task, and cannot see beyond it. Conversely, if a person has transcended and included the previous stages, he or she will always have a patient understanding of the juniors, and can be patient and helpful to them somewhat naturally (although not without trial and effort). That is precisely what makes such people elders! Higher stages always empathetically include the lower, or they are not higher stages!”
Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011, p. 3.
“Although God lives in the souls of men who are unconscious of Him, how can I say that I have found Him and found myself in Him if I never know Him or think of Him, never take and interest in Him or seek Him or desire His presence in my soul? What good does it do to say a few formal prayers to him and then turn away and give all my mind and all my will to created things, desiring only ends that fall far short of Him?”
Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd. New York: New Directions Books, 2007, ©1961, p. 43.
“Most spiritual practices will eventually lose their freshness and become a source of boredom and tedium. But it is precisely there that our faith and determination are tried, and it is only through grace-filled faith and perseverance that we are able to reach the hidden treasures of these practices. It takes time–day after day and year after year–before these treasures come to light. We must stick to it.”
Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 121.
“Curiosity is concerned with novelty: curious people want to know what they do not yet know, ideally, what no one yet knows. Studious people seek knowledge with the awareness that novelty is not what counts, and is indeed finally impossible because anything that can be known by any one of us is already known to God and has been given to us as unmerited gift. … But the deepest contrast between curiosity and studiousness has to do with the kind of world that the seeker for and professor of each inhabits. The curious inhabit a world of objects, which can be sequestered and possessed; the studious inhabit a world of gifts, given things, which can be known by participation, but which, because of their very natures can never be possessed.”
Griffiths, Paul J. Intellectual Appetite: a Theological Grammar. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009, p. 22.
"One of the gifts of solitude, and one of the first to be discovered, is the gift of attentiveness. …
"Related to the gift of attentiveness is the gift of healing. … No one would deny that people play a crucial role in healing. But there is an aspect of spiritual and emotional healing that seems best accomplished alone, especially when tha healing relates to coming to terms with loss or with some significant change in one’s life. …
"Personal clarity, insight, and creativity are other gifts of solitude. …
“The greatest gift of solitude, however, is an awareness of the presence of God. God is often discovered in a very personal way during periods of solitude.”
Moore, Christopher Chamberlin. Solitude: A Neglected Path to God. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2001, pp. 12-14.
“Solitude and silence are wonderful refreshment, a healthy alternative to the noise and chaos of this modern world. But anyone who as spent more than just a few hours or days practicing this knows that the process of rebirth from death to self is often found only through some experience of travail. Only then do we know the joys of the newborn child of the Spirit of God.”
Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 23.
Comment: Talbot says that the suffering of the dark night will indeed hit us – he says sooner, rather than later – once we begin the disciplines of silence and solitude. But he also assures us that it’s a period we have to go through in order to reach the joy of new life in Christ.
"The discovery of our true self does not simply produce freedom. It also generates vocation. … First, we are called to be human beings. … A second level of calling is to be Christians. …
“But we can also think of our calling in terms of our mission in the world, the way of living out our uniqueness within the more general call to become fully human as we follow Jesus toward union with God. Gordon Smith notes that–much bigger than a career, job or occupation–our unique calling will be based on our gifts and abilities, will grow out of our deepest desires, and will always involve some response to the needs of the world.”
Benner, David G. The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2015, pp. 87-88.
“Usually, silence and solitude are joined together. One is not possible, or at least fruitful, without the other. For instance, if we seek both external and interior silence, we must establish an environment where this deep silence can be developed and can grow. That environment is solitude. When solitude and silence are joined together, they produce a sacred stillness that permeates every aspect of our life.”
Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010, page 21.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 