St Isaac of Syria On Silence

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Love silence above everything else, for it brings you near to fruit which the tongue is too feeble to expound.

First of all we force ourselves to be silent, but then from out of our silence something else is born that draws us into silence itself.

May God grant you to perceive that which is born of silence! If you begin this discipline I do not doubt how much light will dawn in you from it.

After a time a certain delight is born in the heart as a result of the practice of this labour, and it forcibly draws the body on to persevere in stillness.

A multitude of tears is born in us by this discipline, at the wondrous vision of certain things which the heart perceives distinctly, sometimes with pain, and sometimes with wonder.

For the heart becomes small and becomes like a tiny babe: as soon as it clings to prayer, tears burst forth.

Daily Readings from St. Isaac of Syria, edited by A. M. Allchin, translated by Sebastian Brock.

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One Response to “St Isaac of Syria On Silence”

1. 

   Len Says:
   November 15th, 2006 at 1:05 pm

   Thanks for this quote on silence. It fits well with my experience in a Lectio Divina group last night. And it is a good reminder and call to prayer now. More than ever before, our world needs people who know deeply (contemplative epistemology?) the healing truths that emerge from sweet silence, and are willing to live from that deeper truth. Blessings. Len