Shabbat

Shabbat

Though I don't know what it means to "Rejewvenate" there is some simplistic idea that comes from this presentation that is alluring.

Silence is the home of the word

Silence is the home of the word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the word. We can eve say that words are meant to disclose the mystery of the silence from which they come.

-Nouwen

So what are words? if Christ is the word then there is more to our words than letter and form. Christ being the word reveals out of the silence of God the power and fruit of his solitude. He speaks and brings forth life. He gives the needed nurturing, direction and love through this same silence.

If we are to imitate Christ or even allow him to speak through us, then there must be silence so we can hear and know they are his words. We too often jump and share opinion which comes from our doubt rather than being silent and speaking only what comes from our faith through Silence. As Merton shares:

Unless our words rise out of Silence, they are apt to be curtains that cover reality rather than windows which reveal it.

So in or rather out of our Silence the mystery is revealed, which is Christ in Us the hope of Glory!

Thoughts on Faith

Faith is more than intellectual assent to propositions and concepts about God. For faith not only attains to God as God is revealed in the articles of faith, it attains to God in the divine Self, that is, to God as God really is, but known in the darkness of unknowing.


Because Faith is adherence to what we do not see, tha act of faith is elicited under the impulse of the will. In the act of faith we submit to authority as it teaches us what God has revealed. Submission to authority which proposes the truths of revelation must not be so overemphasized that it seems to constitute the whole essence of faith. Faith must not be reduced to an act of obedience. Such reductionism could lead to credulity that revels in the unintelligible, as in the case of the person who said of the Trinity: 'Wish there were four of them, so that I maight believe in more of them.' Reducing faith to obedience trivializes faith and strips it of any real content. It can lead also to a forced suppression of doubt rather than an opening of the eye of the heart by deep belief. Doubts about faith need to be faced and dealt with, not suppressed. Most often, they do not indicate an unwillingness or an inability on our part to accept the propositions of faith, but simply a sense of our weakness and helplessness in the presence of the wondrous majesty of God. We can never express the full reality of our experience of God. After we have spoken all the words we can, ther is always so much more of the experience left over.

-Thomas Merton

So, I have to ask the question is it really faith if it has not been realized in experience?