In the book of Wisdom, we read the following verses: "When a peaceful silence lay over all, and the night had run half of her swift course, down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all powerful word." (Wisdom 18:14, 15)
Thus a peaceful silence will characterize our expectant listening for this all powerful word. As Friends, we are most familiar with the practice of silence in connection with our worship, a voluntary, purposeful and disciplined undertaking in which members of our spiritual community gather deliberately to practice the giving of a corporate, loving attention to God. But the present reflection considers the practice of inner silence in everyday life. Let us consider particularly the way the practice of inner silence in everyday life can provide a window to the Divine which is supportive of our practice of corporate worship on First Day mornings and other times.
All of us carry within us a great question. In fact, our very life is a quest, a search. Sometimes we are more acutely aware of this than at other times. Sometimes this question is sharply etched. Sometimes it is vague and unformulated. When Jesus said that we cannot live by bread alone, he was speaking of this great question and of our hunger for a corresponding great answer. This great answer which we seek is indeed accessible to us. For it is within us and around us and seeking to make itself known to us. Sometimes it is given to a person in a blinding flash, suddenly, in an instant. To other people it comes slowly and gradually over time. But however it arrives, there comes upon us a great experience of absolute Spirit and a leading to transform the way we live out our life in the world. Thus, the answer comes both as insight and as practice. It comes both as a new awareness and as a transformed way of being, of acting.
