“The search for interior silence is a path to perfection that demands repeated attempts. So often, we have a hazardous kind of excitement and imagination inside us. It is necessary to hide in the Spirit in order to divert and escape the senses. The Holy Spirit is the first condition for silence.” Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017), page 56.
spiritual life and the love of Christ
“There is no true spiritual life outside the love of Christ. We have a spiritual life only because we are loved by Him. The spiritual life consists in receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and His charity…. If we know how great is this love of Jesus for us we will never be afraid to go to Him in all our poverty, all our weakness, all our spiritual wretchedness and infirmity.” (p. 25)
Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1958. (pbk ed 1999).
stillness and silence in prayer
“I repeat what I said in reference to the Lord’s Prayer: if in the midst of such thoughts the Holy Spirit begins to preach in your heart with rich, enlightening thoughts, honor him by letting go of this written scheme [that Luther had just outlined for praying the 10 Commandments]; be still and listen to him who can do better than you can. Remember what he says and note it well and you will behold wondrous things in the law of God, as David says [in Psalm 119:18].” (pages 201-202)
Luther, Martin. “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
This is something I should have known years ago, but here is evidence that Martin Luther advocates stillness and silence in prayer. And, maybe more significantly, of him saying that the Holy Spirit can and does preach directly to us in our hearts. When I went to seminary there were other things in the air, so this never made it to the surface. And note that it isn’t “early Luther” but the fully mature Luther of 1535 saying this!
Holy Spirit the best teacher
“I want your heart to be stirred and guided concerning the thoughts which ought to be comprehended in the Lord’s Prayer. These thoughts may be expressed, if your heart is rightly warmed and inclined toward prayer, in many different ways and with more words of fewer. I do not bind myself to such words or syllables, but say my prayers in one fashion today, in another tomorrow, depending upon my mood and feeling. I stay, however, as nearly as I can, with the same general thoughts and ideas.
“It may happen occasionally that I may get lost among so many ideas in one petition that I forego the other six. If such an abundance of good thoughts comes to us we ought to disregard the other petitions, make room for such thoughts, listen in silence, and under no circumstances obstruct them. The Holy Spirit himself preaches here, and one word of his sermon is better than a thousand of our prayers. Many times I have learned more from one prayer than I might have learned from much reading and speculation.” (page 198)
Luther, Martin. “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Luther was a strong advocate of praying the Lord’s Prayer. He would have people say it several times a day. But here’s the thing: he never wanted people to spill out the words of the prayer by rote, just to count it as having been said. And we can easily fall into that when we speed through that or any other prayer.
I was surprised to read this passage a couple years ago and see where he says he might happily skip most of the Lord’s Prayer when he gets caught up in thoughts that arise out of just one of its petitions. This casts a whole different light on his directions to say the Lord’s Prayer upon rising, before meals, and at bedtime. It is really more of a comprehensive framework for prayer. Isn’t that a freeing thought?
Martin Luther not the last word
“This is my opinion, and doubtless Christ will further enlighten and guide you within your own hearts through his Holy Spirit as to just how you should act at all times and specifically in this matter.” (page 165)
Luther, Martin. “A Letter of Consolation to the Christians at Halle” (1527) Luther’s Works Vol. 43. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
In his letter of consolation, Luther offers his thoughts and guidance, and ends by saying he is well aware that he isn’t the last word in these matters. The Holy Spirit will surely guide people in ways that Luther can’t yet imagine. You and I should have the same kind of humility when we offer our advice and thoughts to others.
the Holy Spirit is given in faith
“Faith creates godliness and drives out all sin, grants strength in sickness, enlightens in all blindness, heals all evil inclinations, guards against sin, and performs every good deed. In brief, the fruit of such faith is that never can there remain any frailty; for in faith the Holy Spirit is given, and thereby a man loves God because of the abundant goodness received from him. A man becomes cheerful and glad to do all that is good without the compulsion of the law and command.” (page 175)
Luther, Martin. “Sermon on the Worthy Reception of the Sacrament” (1521) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
growth in Christ
“We increase and deepen our participation in the life of the Body by the activity of our minds and wills, illuminated and guided by the Holy Ghost. We must therefore keep growing in our knowledge and love of God and in our love for other men. The power of good operative habits must take ever greater and greater hold upon us. The Truth we believe in must work itself more and more fully into the very substance of our lives until our whole existence is nothing but vision and love.
“What this means in practice is summed up by one word that most men are afraid of: asceticism.” (pp. 9-10)
Merton, Thomas. “The White Pebble.” (1950) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013.
the Holy Spirit, mystics, and Church
“It can be said at once that the inspirations of the Holy Ghost are seldom completely at variance with the sanely traditional norms of religious societies. However the history of the saints is full of examples when those led directly by God fell under the furious censures of professionally holy men. The trial of St. Joan of Arc is a case in point.
“The life of a contemplative is apt to be one constant tension and conflict between what he feels to be the interior movements of grace and the objective, exterior claims made upon him by the society to whose laws he is subject. The tension is heightened by the realization that false mystics are always ready to claim exemption from social norms on the basis of private inspiration. And the society itself, speaking through its most articulate members, will not be slow to remind him of the fact.” (pp. 76-77)
Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003. [Merton wrote this in 1959]
Pathology: the Study of a Path 