No theme has been as unanimously praised by the masters of the interior life as silence. From the Egyptian monks, who called it “the root of the absence of sin”, to Cardinal Robert Sarah, who made it the title of a famous book, one conviction spans twenty centuries: God can only be heard by a soul that is silent. This article gathers what the saints have said about it—their definitions, images, warnings, and their most beautiful expressions on inner silence.
The word is prone to misunderstanding. For the world, silence resembles emptiness, boredom, an absence. For the saints, it is exactly the opposite: a fullness, the inhabited space where “God speaks and communicates Himself”[1]. The silence they speak of is not primarily that of places, but that of the heart: one can be silent and remain distracted, pray amid noise and remain recollected. It is this silence—“the silent love” spoken of by Saint John of the Cross and echoed by the Catechism[2]—that they sought their whole lives.
The saints do not speak of it as theorists of recollection: they speak from within, because they have won it through a long battle against the noise outside and, even more, against the tumult within. This is what gives their words their unique weight—a testimony, not a theory. This anthology follows their voice, from Scripture to the Desert Fathers, from cloisters to modern mystics, then highlights the major themes on which they agree: silence as God’s language, as the condition for encounter, as a foretaste of Heaven.
This article does not address the practical path of silence—for concrete means to grow in it, its enemies and stages, see How to Grow in Inner Silence—nor the trial of the silence of God Himself, when He seems silent in suffering, treated in Why Does God Seem Silent?. Here, we listen to the saints speak about silence.
Why Listen to the Saints on Inner Silence?
A Knowledge That Can Only Be Learned in Silence
Inner silence is paradoxical in that it cannot truly be explained from the outside: to know it is already to inhabit it. That is why the best teachers on the subject are not orators, but contemplatives—those who have consented to be silent long enough to hear. The spiritual tradition is unanimous in seeing silence not as mere nervous hygiene, but as the very condition of the interior life. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom in Rome, made it a question of being, not words, as early as the beginning of the 2nd century:
“It is better to be silent and be, than to speak and not be.”
— Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, 15[3]
Speech has value only if a silent life carries it. And the bishop of Antioch immediately adds this dizzying intuition, which governs all that follows: the Christian who truly possesses the word of Jesus “can even hear His silence”[4]. To listen to the saints on silence is therefore to listen to them on the very heart of their union with God.
“It Is There That God Speaks and Communicates Himself”
If the saints sought silence so much, it was for one unique reason: they were convinced that God gives Himself there. The Italian mystic Bénigne-Consolata Ferrero heard Christ locate this place not outside, but at the most secret summit of the soul:
“The soul must find within itself this highest summit… the place where silence reigns, for it is there that God speaks and communicates Himself.”
— Jesus to Sister Bénigne-Consolata Ferrero[5]
The Catechism confirms this with its authority: Christian prayer is “listening to the Word of God”[6], and this listening does not happen without silence. All the teaching that follows is but the unfolding of this primary conviction: one does not keep silent to flee, but to hear.
Silence, the Language of God: What the Saints Say
When asked why to seek silence, the saints’ answers converge on the same image: God speaks softly. His voice does not overwhelm; it brushes gently; it does not drown out noise but presupposes that noise has been silenced. Silence is therefore the very language through which God communicates.
God Reveals Himself in “the Whisper of a Gentle Breeze”
The foundational biblical scene is that of Elijah at Horeb. The prophet waits for God in the storm, the earthquake, the fire — and God is not there. He reveals Himself elsewhere:
“The Lord was not in the wind… The Lord was not in the earthquake… The Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the whisper of a gentle breeze.”
— First Book of Kings 19:11-13[7]
The Hebrew — qol demamah daqqah, literally “a voice of fine silence” — says it all: God gives Himself in a silence that is still a word. The prophet Hosea echoes the same divine pedagogy: “I will allure her, lead her into the desert, and speak tenderly to her heart.”[8] The biblical desert, a place without noise, is the place of intimacy regained; and the psalmist draws from this the invitation: “Be still, and know that I am God.”[9]
“One Word, Spoken in Eternal Silence” (John of the Cross)
Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church and master of Carmel, gave the densest formula of this mystery in the entire tradition. God, he says, has spoken only one Word — His Son — and He speaks it eternally in silence:
“The Father has spoken only one Word: it is His Son; He always speaks Him in eternal silence, and it is in silence that the soul must hear Him.”
— Saint John of the Cross, Counsels and Maxims[10]
Silence is therefore not the absence of Word: it is its natural environment. This is why the Catechism, quoting the same doctor, can define prayer as “silence” and “silent love.”[11] The eternal Word is heard only by making within oneself the silence in which it resonates.
The Silence of the Word: Ignatius of Antioch
This intuition — that the Word manifests as much by His silence as by His words — goes back to the origins. Saint Ignatius of Antioch was the first to link the silence of the soul to the very silence of God: Jesus “made Himself known by His silence.”[12] Christ preached for thirty years by His silence in Nazareth before preaching three years by His words; He was silent before Pilate; He saved the world in the silence of the Cross. To imitate this silence, for the Fathers, is not to wall oneself off: it is to enter into the very way God acts.
The Desert Fathers and the Christian East
Arsenius: "Flee, be silent, remain at rest"
From the 4th century onward, the monks of Egypt and Sinai made silence the program of their entire lives. The most famous apophthegm is that of Saint Arsenius the Great, a former tutor at the imperial court who became a hermit. Having prayed to know how to be saved, he heard a voice:
"Arsenius, flee (from men), be silent, remain at rest: these are the roots of the absence of sin."
— Apophthegms of the Desert Fathers, Arsenius 1-2[13]
This triad — fuga, silentium, quies (flee, be silent, rest) — became the heart of the tradition of hesychia, that silent "rest" of the whole soul turned toward God. The Fathers did not flee men out of contempt, but to make themselves available to the One who speaks only in a low voice.
Isaac the Syrian: "Love silence above all else"
In the 7th century, Saint Isaac of Nineveh — Isaac the Syrian — left pages on silence that both East and West equally venerate. He speaks of it as a good surpassing all words:
"More than all things, love silence: it bears a fruit that the tongue is powerless to describe."
— Saint Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Discourses[14]
He also describes his progressive pedagogy: "Let us begin by forcing ourselves to be silent, and then, from our very silence, something will be born in us that will draw us to silence"[15]. Silence begets silence: one enters peace through a first effort, and peace itself deepens the desire for a deeper silence. It is this same Isaac whom the Catechism cites, calling the silence of prayer "the symbol of the world to come"[16].
Saint Basil: the restless eye sees nothing
In Cappadocia, Saint Basil of Caesarea, father of Eastern monasticism, gave an almost psychological justification for silence: a scattered mind cannot see God, just as an eye constantly moved sees nothing distinctly.
"The perpetually restless eye... cannot see distinctly what is before it; likewise, the human mind, if distracted by the many cares of the world, is incapable of fixing itself on the truth."
— Saint Basil of Caesarea, Short Ascetical Collection[17]
For Basil, silence is therefore not a luxury of the monk: it is the condition for all right vision. "The mind that no longer disperses itself outwardly... returns to itself, and, starting from itself, rises to the thought of God"[18]. To make silence is to gather the scattered soul to make it capable of God.
The Latin Monastic Tradition
Saint Benedict and the Love of Silence
In the West, Saint Benedict of Nursia placed silence at the heart of his Rule (6th century), which governed Latin monastic life for fifteen centuries. He devotes an entire chapter to it, On Taciturnity, where he urges the monk to love silence:
“Let us do as the Prophet says: ‘I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I have set a guard on my mouth.’ […] Therefore, because of the value of silence, permission to speak is rarely granted to the disciples.”
— Saint Benedict of Nursia, Rule, ch. 6 (On Taciturnity)[19]
Benedictine silence is not a sad muteness: it is ordered toward listening, the very first word with which the entire Rule opens — “Listen, my son.” One keeps silent in order to hear; and one hears only by being silent.
The Imitation of Christ: “Withdrawing from the Crowd with Jesus”
No book after the Bible has formed Christians in recollection as much as The Imitation of Christ, this small 15th-century treatise attributed to Thomas à Kempis. It devotes a chapter to The Love of Solitude and Silence:
“He who aspires to the interior and spiritual life must withdraw from the crowd with Jesus. No one shows himself without danger if he does not love to remain hidden. No one speaks with measure if he does not willingly keep silent.”
— The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. 20[20]
The same chapter states a law that has become proverbial in spiritual life: “In silence and rest the devout soul makes progress.”[21] Silence is not a parenthesis in Christian life: it is its workshop.
The Carthusians: The Fullness of Silence
No order has taken the love of silence as far as the Carthusians, those monks devoted to solitude since Saint Bruno (11th century). The Carthusian Dom Augustin Guillerand expressed better than anyone that this silence is not emptiness but fullness:
“Silence is not an absence. It is, on the contrary, a presence… an attention, an intensity of life, a listening.”
— Dom Augustin Guillerand, Carthusian[22]
For the Carthusians, external silence only makes sense to deepen the silence of the heart, where the soul stands “alone with the Alone.” Their motto expresses this peaceful stability amid a restless world: “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis” — the Cross stands firm while the world turns.
Mystics and Doctors of the Church
John Tauler and the "Ground of the Soul"
The 14th-century Rhenish mysticism gave the deepest vocabulary to inner silence with the notion of the "ground of the soul" (Seelengrund), that most secret sanctuary where God alone dwells. The Dominican John Tauler calls the soul to enter there:
"Do not run much outwardly, leave behind your turmoil, your agitation, your impulsive and disorderly ways of acting… remain within yourself and give your attention to the Lord, in the ground where He reigns with power and as master."
— John Tauler, Sermon 67[23]
Inner silence, for the Rhenish mystics, is therefore not a superficial effort: it is a descent toward this center where God waits, more intimate to us than ourselves.
Saint Catherine of Siena: the "Inner Cell"
Saint Catherine of Siena (14th century), Doctor of the Church, gave an image of this center that the entire tradition has retained: the "inner cell." A woman of action consumed by service to the Church, she taught that one can carry everywhere with oneself a cell of silence from which one never has to leave:
"Make yourself an inner cell in your heart, and never leave it."
— Saint Catherine of Siena, Letters[24]
This is the saints’ answer to the modern objection — "I don’t have time to be silent": inner silence does not primarily depend on circumstances, but on a cell that the soul carries within itself, even amid turmoil.
Carmel: Elizabeth of the Trinity, "the House of Silence"
At the Carmel of Dijon, Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880–1906) made silence the atmosphere of her entire vocation: to become a "praise of glory" of the Trinity dwelling in the soul. Her most famous prayer asks for this inhabited silence:
"O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely so as to establish myself in You, immobile and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. […] Pacify my soul, make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling, and the place of Your rest."
— Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, Elevation to the Trinity (November 21, 1904)[25]
She hears Christ asking her for this continual presence: "Abide in me… not for a few moments… but in a permanent, habitual way. Abide in me, pray in me, adore in me, love in me."[26] And she sums up her discovery in one phrase: "I have found my Heaven on earth, since Heaven is God, and God is my soul."[27] For her, inner silence is this Heaven begun.
The School of Peace and Moderation
Ambrose of Lombez: "God speaks only the language of peace"
The Capuchin Ambrose of Lombez, an 18th-century spiritual master, linked inner silence to the peace of the heart: one can only hear God in a tranquil soul, because God Himself speaks only this language.
“If you want to converse with God, you must make peace within yourself, since He speaks only the language of peace, which can only be heard by those who enjoy peace in their own hearts.”
— Ambrose of Lombez, Treatise on Inner Peace[28]
Hence his advice for achieving inner silence: not to fight thoughts directly, but to calm the passions that stir them. “Set the heart right and everything within us will be set right: let us be at peace, and our thoughts… will be nothing but thoughts of peace.”[29]
Abbé Dinouart: the degrees of the art of silence
In the Age of Enlightenment, Abbé Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint Dinouart wrote a small but famous treatise on silence, The Art of Being Silent (1771). He distinguishes the silence of the lips — that of wisdom — into three degrees:
“The first degree of wisdom is to know how to be silent; the second, to know how to speak little and moderate one’s speech; the third, to know how to speak much without speaking badly and without speaking too much.”
— Abbé Dinouart, The Art of Being Silent[30]
His golden rule links silence to the charity of speech: “One should cease to be silent only when one has something to say that is better than silence.”[31] Here, silence is not isolation: it is to release speech only when it is better than silence.
The Saints of Modern Times
Madeleine Delbrêl: "True noise is the echo that things have within us"
A mystic of the streets, engaged among the workers of Paris, Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964) showed that inner silence is not reserved for cloisters: it is lived at the heart of the city, because true noise is not outside, but inside.
"We do not lack silence because we have it. The day we lack it is the day we have not known how to take it. All the noises around us make much less racket than we ourselves do. True noise is the echo that things have within us."
— Madeleine Delbrêl, The Dazzled of God[32]
A formidable diagnosis: the most deafening noise is not that of the street, but the resonance we give it. Silence is therefore not primarily to be created outside, but to be allowed to arise within.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta: "God is the friend of silence"
Fully given to action among the poorest, Saint Teresa of Calcutta nevertheless drew her strength from silence. She loved to repeat a simple phrase:
"God is the friend of silence. See how nature — the trees, the flowers, the grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to touch souls.”[33]
And from this she drew the law of every apostolic life: “The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.”[34] Far from opposing one another, silence and service nourish one another: one gives only the overflow of a heart that has been silent before God.
Cardinal Robert Sarah: “without silence, God disappears in the noise”
In our time, Cardinal Robert Sarah gave the struggle for inner silence its most resounding manifesto, The Power of Silence. Against the Dictatorship of Noise (2016). His thesis can be summed up in one sentence:
“Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive as God is absent.” — Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence[35]
He diagnoses in contemporary man an organized flight from silence: “The postmodern man... has become accustomed to a constant background noise that stupefies him and brings him comfort”[36]. And he recalls that the highest witness of silence remains that of the martyrs: “The blood of the martyrs is a seed, a cry, and a silent prayer rising to God”[37].
The Mystical Voices: The Silence Where God Works on the Soul
The great mystical voices of the 19th and 20th centuries emphasized one point: it is in silence that God acts on the soul, and distraction prevents this. The Lord repeats this to the French mystic Marie Sevray under the image of a craftsman:
“Let souls come out of the external tumult, let them withdraw apart, let them contemplate Me and listen to Me… I will work on them like soft wax. In distraction, I will not do it.”
— The Lord to Marie Sevray, Divine Calls[38]
The same warning appears with Gabrielle Bossis, to whom Christ asks to strip off the inner tumult like a garment: “Get rid of every thought, every worry of the day. Cast it off like a garment. And be all Mine.”[39] Father Marie-Étienne Vayssière summarized this teaching: “Solitude, silence, recollection, fix yourselves in this atmosphere… It is there that God speaks and visits us.”[40]
It is with the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta that this doctrine of silence where God gives Himself reaches its most tender form. In The Book of Heaven, Jesus presents inner silence as the place of His rest in the soul:
“I am here with you. Do not look elsewhere to find Me. I rest in you and watch over you.”
— Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 1[41]
Inner silence, in this tradition, is therefore never empty: it is the place of a presence, the workshop where the Divine Artist shapes the saints. “Inaction before the Tabernacle, the soul and heart in Me, is for Me the opportune moment to work, to form my Saints.”[42]
The Saints’ Warnings: False Silence
Silence Is Neither Emptiness Nor Escape
The saints, because they knew inner silence, also knew how to distinguish its counterfeits. Christian silence is not the Buddhist emptiness of the mind, nor simply the absence of noise, nor a proud flight from one’s neighbor. Dom Guillerand said it: silence is “a presence… a listening”[43], not an absence. Silence that is not turned toward God and open to charity would be sterile muteness, sometimes even disguised pride. The Virgin, to Don Stefano Gobbi, brings this struggle back to a concrete gesture of sobriety: “Do not look at newspapers or television; remain always on my Heart, in prayer.”[44]
Silence to Love Better: The Silence of Charity
True silence, far from shutting others out, serves them. Being silent about others' faults, holding back useless or hurtful words, truly listening: this too is inner silence. Abbot Dinouart summed it up: one breaks silence only to speak better than silence[45]. And The Imitation warned that chatter dissipates the soul and that “it is easier to be completely silent than not to exceed in one’s words”[46]. The silence of the saints is never a withdrawal into oneself: it is an openness—first to God, and through Him to others.
What Silence Produces, According to the Saints
Beyond definitions, the saints abundantly describe the fruits of inner silence. Three keep recurring: it makes one hear God, it gives peace, it makes the soul fruitful. The following table gathers, for some great witnesses, the core idea they attach to silence—a way to see at a glance the convergence of their voices.
| Witness | Work / Source | Core Idea on Inner Silence |
|---|---|---|
| Saint Ignatius of Antioch | Letter to the Ephesians, 15 | The perfect Christian even hears the silence of Jesus |
| Saint Arsenius | Apophthegms of the Fathers | Flee, be silent, remain at rest: roots of holiness |
| Saint Isaac the Syrian | Ascetical Discourses | Silence bears a fruit that the tongue cannot express |
| The Imitation | Book I, ch. 20 | In silence and rest, the soul makes progress |
| John of the Cross | Counsels and Maxims | The eternal Word is heard only in silence |
| Elizabeth of the Trinity | Elevation to the Trinity | Make one’s soul a silent dwelling for God |
| Madeleine Delbrêl | The Dazzled by God | True noise is the echo that things have within us |
| Cardinal Sarah | The Power of Silence | Without silence, God disappears into noise |
It Makes the Voice of God Heard
The first fruit, the one everyone names, is the hearing of God. It is the very promise of Elijah at Horeb: he who silences the inner storm finally hears “the whisper of a gentle breeze”[47]. Father Gaston Courtois heard Christ say it in urgent terms: “There must be silence, there must be desert… if you are faithful, if you persevere… your Beloved will make His voice heard”[48]. Silence is not an end in itself: it is the ear of the soul.
It Gives Peace and Unity of Heart
The second fruit is peace. The soul scattered by a thousand noises is divided against itself; silence gathers and pacifies it. That is why Ambrose of Lombez makes silence and peace two sides of the same grace: one enters silence through peace, and one sinks deeper into peace through silence[49]. Blessed Dina Bélanger had experienced this joyfully: “Silence! What a fountain of joy!”[50]
It Makes the Soul Fruitful
The third fruit defies our logic: it is in silence, not in agitation, that the soul becomes fruitful. Mother Teresa repeated it: “The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.”[51] Conversely, Marie Sevray heard Christ lament the barrenness of hurried souls: “They slip! They slip! They do not deepen their own inner life; how then could they give from an overflow of what they do not have enough of?”[52] Silence is not lost time: it is the hidden root of all true fruitfulness.
Jesus and Mary, Summits of Silence
All the words of the saints ultimately point to two models. Inner silence is not primarily a doctrine: it is a face — that of Mary who meditates, and that of the Word who is silent to save.
Mary, Virgin of Silence
The Virgin Mary is the perfect model of inner silence. The Gospel gives her almost no words, but it says twice that she kept everything deep within her:
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
— Gospel according to Saint Luke 2:19[53]
Her silence is not empty: it is the loving rumination of the Word, the inner reception of the mystery she carries. Beside her, Saint Joseph utters not a single word throughout the Gospel: he “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24)[54]. Tradition sees in him the model of the silent just man, whose obedience speaks through deeds.
The Silence of Nazareth and the Cross
Before preaching, the Word lived thirty years in the silence of Nazareth. The Catechism sees in this a true “lesson in silence”[55], and Paul VI, meditating on the spot, drew from it an entire inner school:
“The silence of Nazareth teaches us recollection, interiority, the disposition to listen to good inspirations… the return to the heart.”
— Paul VI, address in Nazareth, January 5, 1964[56]
This silence culminates at Calvary: before his accusers, “Jesus remained silent” (Mt 26:63); on the Cross, he saves the world in a silence that is the ultimate word of love. This is the goal of all that the saints have said about silence: not a technique of emptiness, but entry into the very silence of God, “a single Word spoken in eternal silence”[57], to unite with the One who gives Himself there.
For Further Reading
- How to Grow in Inner Silence — the practical path: what it is and what it is not, its enemies (distraction, “noise within”), its stages, and concrete means to cultivate it.
- Why Does God Seem Silent? — the trial of God’s own silence when He appears to be silent in suffering.
- How to Grow in Contemplative Prayer, How to Grow in Lectio Divina, and How to Grow in Eucharistic Adoration — the great places where inner silence is exercised.
- How to Grow in Spiritual Vigilance — the guarding of the heart and the battle against thoughts, the ascetic aspect of silence.
- What the Saints Say About Humility and What the Saints Say About Charity — other selections from the same series “Voices of the Saints.”
Notes and References
Jesus to Sister Bénigne-Consolata Ferrero (1885-1916), cited in G. Boccardo, Life of Sister Bénigne-Consolata, vol. I, Work of Propaganda of the Sacred Heart, 1929, p. 16: “The soul must find within itself this highest summit… the place where silence reigns, for it is there that God speaks and communicates Himself.”
1 5Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2717: “Prayer is silence, this ‘symbol of the world to come’ (Saint Isaac of Nineveh) or ‘silent love’ (Saint John of the Cross).” Official French edition, Mame/Plon, 1992.
2 11 16Saint Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-107), Letter to the Ephesians, ch. 15, 1-2: “It is better to be silent and to be, than to speak and not to be. […] He who truly possesses the word of Jesus can even hear His silence, in order to be perfect, to act by His word and to make himself known by his silence.” Reference edition: Ignatius of Antioch — Letters, Sources Chrétiennes 10 (ed. P.-Th. Camelot), Cerf.
3 4 12Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2716: prayer is “listening to the Word of God”; this listening, far from being passive, is “the obedience of faith” and demands the attention of the heart. Official French edition, Mame/Plon, 1992.
61 Kings 19:11-13, official liturgical translation (AELF): after the hurricane, earthquake, and fire — where “the Lord was not” — comes “the sound of a gentle whisper” (Hebrew qol demamah daqqah, literally “a voice of fine silence”). It is there that God reveals Himself to Elijah.
7 47Book of Hosea 2:16, official liturgical translation (AELF): “I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her heart.” The biblical desert is the silent place of intimacy regained with God.
8Psalm 46 (45):11, official liturgical translation (AELF): “Be still, and know that I am God.” An invitation to calmness as a condition for knowing God.
9Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), Sayings and Maxims (Dichos de luz y amor): “The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this Word is always spoken in eternal silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul.” The maxim is classified among the Sayings and Maxims (numbering varies). Cited in CCC § 2717.
10 57Apophthegms of the Desert Fathers, alphabetical series, Arsenius 1-2: having prayed to be saved, Arsenius heard: “Arsenius, flee (men), be silent, remain at rest (hesychia): these are the roots of sinlessness.” The triad flight-silence-rest became the program of hesychastic life. Reference edition: The Apophthegms of the Fathers, Sources Chrétiennes 387, Cerf.
13Saint Isaac the Syrian (Isaac of Nineveh, 7th century), Ascetical Discourses, in Spiritual Works. The 86 Ascetical Discourses, the Letters (trans. Jacques Touraille, preface by Olivier Clément), Desclée de Brouwer, 1981: “Above all things, love silence: it bears a fruit that the tongue is powerless to describe. Let us begin by forcing ourselves to be silent, and then, from our very silence, something will be born in us that will draw us to silence.” Passage from the discourses on hesychia (corresponding to Homily 64 of the critical English edition of the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration, Boston, 1984).
14 15Saint Basil of Caesarea (c. 330-379), Little Ascetical Collection, Abbey of Bellefontaine, 2013, p. 76: “The eye, perpetually restless… cannot see clearly what is offered to it; likewise, the human spirit, if distracted by the many cares of the world, is incapable of fixing itself on the truth.”
17Saint Basil of Caesarea, Little Ascetical Collection, Bellefontaine, 2013, p. 79: “The spirit that no longer disperses itself outwardly, that no longer spreads itself through the senses into the world, returns to itself, and, starting from itself, rises to the thought of God.”
18Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547), Rule, ch. 6 (On Taciturnity), §§ 1-3, citing Ps 38 (39):2: “I have set a guard on my mouth.” Critical edition: The Rule of Saint Benedict, Sources Chrétiennes 181-186, Cerf, 1971-1972. Silence (taciturnitas) is one of the pillars of Benedictine spirituality, ordered to listening by which the Rule opens (“Listen, O my son”, Prologue).
19Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), The Imitation of Christ, book I, ch. 20 (On the Love of Solitude and Silence), 1-2: “He who aspires to the interior and spiritual life must withdraw from the crowd with Jesus. No one shows himself without danger if he does not love to remain hidden. No one speaks with measure if he does not willingly keep silent.” The same chapter (I, 20, 5) affirms: “In silence and rest the devout soul makes progress.” Reference translation: Félicité de Lamennais (1824).
20 21Dom Augustin Guillerand (1877-1945), Carthusian, Spiritual Writings and Carthusian Voice, Parole et Silence, 2001: Carthusian silence is not emptiness nor muteness, but presence, attention, and listening of a soul stretched toward God in solitude. The order’s motto, “Stat crux dum volvitur orbis”, expresses the stability of the cross amid a turning world.
22 43Jean Tauler (c. 1300-1361), Sermon 67: “Do not run much outside, leave your turmoil, your agitation, your impulsive and disorderly ways of acting… remain within yourself and give your attention to the Lord, in the depth where He reigns with power and as master.” The “depth of the soul” (Seelengrund) is a central theme of Rhineland mysticism. Reference edition: Sermons, complete translation, Cerf edition.
23Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), recurring image in her Letters (notably the Letter to Alessa) and in The Dialogue: the “inner cell” of self-knowledge in God, which the soul always carries with it and never has to leave, even in the midst of action. She speaks of “two cells in one”: the material cell and the inner cell of the heart. Reference edition: Letters, Cerf edition.
24Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906), Elevation to the Trinity (“O my God, Trinity I adore”), composed November 21, 1904, Complete Works, Cerf, 1979-1980, pp. 199-200.
25Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, Complete Works, Cerf, 1979-1980, p. 100: “Remain in me, not for a few moments, a few hours that must pass, but ‘remain…’ in a permanent, habitual way. Remain in me, pray in me, adore in me, love in me, suffer in me, work, act in me.”
26Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, Letter 122 (to Madame de Sourdon), Complete Works, Cerf: “It seems to me that I have found my Heaven on earth, since Heaven is God, and God is my soul.”
27Ambrose of Lombez (1708-1778), Treatise on Inner Peace, reissued Traditions Monastiques, 2017, p. 35: “If you want to converse with God, you must be at peace, since He speaks only the language of peace, which can only be heard by those who enjoy peace in their own hearts.”
28 49Ambrose of Lombez, Treatise on Inner Peace, Traditions Monastiques, 2017, p. 32: “The shortest way to drive away useless and wandering thoughts… is to stop all movements of the passions… Let us regulate the heart and everything will be regulated in us: let us be at peace, and our thoughts, like those of God, will be only thoughts of peace.”
29Abbé Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint Dinouart (1716-1786), The Art of Silence (1771), reissued Payot & Rivages, 2018, p. 32: “The first degree of wisdom is to know how to be silent; the second, to know how to speak little and moderate one’s speech; the third is to know how to speak much, without speaking badly and without speaking too much.”
30Abbé Dinouart, The Art of Silence, Payot & Rivages, 2018, p. 35: “One should cease to be silent only when one has something to say that is better than silence.”
31 45Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), The Dazzled One of God, Nouvelle Cité, 2019, p. 21: “We do not lack silence because we have it. The day we lack it is the day we have not known how to take it. All the noises around us make much less racket than we ourselves do. The true noise is the echo that things have within us.”
32Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), God is the Friend of Silence (collection of sayings): “God is the friend of silence. See how nature… grows in silence. […] We need silence to touch souls.” and “The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.” Recurring phrases of Mother Teresa, notably in There Is No Greater Love, Bayard edition.
33 34 51Cardinal Robert Sarah and Nicolas Diat, The Power of Silence. Against the Dictatorship of Noise, Fayard, 2016: “Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive as God is absent.” Central thesis of the book.
35Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence, Fayard, 2016: “The postmodern man no longer understands the divine and mysterious eternity. Without noise, he falls into a dull and nagging agitation. He has become accustomed to a constant background noise that stupefies him and brings him comfort.”
36Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence, Fayard, 2016, no. 198 (pp. 156-157): “The blood of the martyrs is a seed, a cry, and a silent prayer rising to God.”
37The Lord to Marie Sevray, Divine Calls, Parvis, 2004, p. 15: “Let souls come out of the external tumult, let them withdraw apart, let them contemplate Me and listen to Me… I will work them like soft wax. In distraction, I will not do it.”
38Jesus to Gabrielle Bossis (1874-1950), He and I. Spiritual Conversations, Beauchesne, vol. 1, 1948, no. 94, p. 42: “Rid yourself of every thought, every care of the day. Rid yourself of it as of a garment. And be all Mine.”
39Father Marie-Étienne Vayssière (1864-1940), Consent to Love. Selected Letters, Béatitudes, 2018, p. 29: “Solitude, silence, recollection, fix yourself in this atmosphere, guard it jealously. It is there that God speaks and visits us. […] Let yourself be done, let yourself be loved, that is the essential.”
40Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), The Book of Heaven, volume 1: “I am here with you. Do not look elsewhere to find Me. I rest in you and watch over you.” Centro Studi Piccarreta editions; passage to be cross-checked with the critical edition of volume 1.
41The Lord to Marie Sevray, Divine Calls, Parvis, 2004, p. 15: “It is not by running that the artist works and makes his masterpieces… I, Divine Artist, do the same. Inaction before the Tabernacle, the soul and heart in Me, is for Me the opportune moment to work, to form my Saints.”
42The Virgin Mary to Don Stefano Gobbi (1930-2011), To Priests, the Beloved Sons of Our Lady (The Blue Book), Marian Priests’ Movement: “Do not look at newspapers or television; remain always on my Heart, in prayer.”
44Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, book I, ch. 10 (That One Must Avoid Many Words), 2: “It is easier to be completely silent than not to exceed in one’s words.” Lamennais translation.
46Jesus through Father Gaston Courtois (1897-1970), When the Lord Speaks to the Heart, no. 1: “Silence is needed, the desert is needed. We hate dryness and emptiness. But if you are faithful, if you persevere… your Beloved will make His voice heard, your heart will burn and this ardor, all interior, will bring you peace and fruitfulness.”
48Blessed Dina Bélanger (1897-1929), cited in Jacques Gauthier, I Will Give Joy, Emmanuel, 2019, p. 108: “Silence! What a fountain of joy! […] In the midst of the Uncreated Light, silence is the most perfect praise.”
50The Lord to Marie Sevray, Divine Calls, Parvis, 2004, pp. 11-12: “They slip! They slip! They do not deepen their own inner life; how then could they give overflow of what they do not have enough of?”
52Gospel according to Saint Luke 2:19 (cf. 2:51), official liturgical translation (AELF): “But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary’s silence is the loving rumination of the Word.
53Saint Joseph utters no word in the Gospels; he “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24, AELF). Tradition sees in him the model of the silent just man, whose obedience is expressed in deeds, not words.
54Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 533, on the hidden life of Nazareth as a “lesson in silence”; cf. Paul VI, address in Nazareth, January 5, 1964: “The silence of Nazareth teaches us recollection, interiority, the disposition to listen to good inspirations… the return to the heart.” Official French edition of the CCC, Mame/Plon, 1992.
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