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I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."
Psalm 122:1
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Genesis 1:1
"This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalms 118:24
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And he shall direct your paths."
Proverbs 3:5
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Rector's Study
IN SILENCE, WAIT
Preparing for Lent this year, I've found myself talking, e-mailing, and making announcements all about the programs we will be offering. Questions have been raised and answers given. Statements have been made and responses offered. There has been a great deal of communication, a lot of conversation. All the planning and preparing and producing have taken place to insure that the programs during this holy time of prayer and penitence are worthy of your participation, and I believe you will be blessed in your Lenten observance through these efforts. But I want to encourage you to give time to something that is difficult to program during the 40 days. Be quiet.
As I've begun to consider my Lenten Discipline, what I've come to believe I most need to give up for Lent this year is some of the noise, some of the discussion, some of the distracting sound that surrounds our contemporary daily existence. My soul is in need of silence, wherein I might "be still; and know that Thou art God." I wonder if you might have the same need.
Recently in a sermon, I quoted Thomas Merton, "Preaching the word of God implies silence. If preaching is not born of silence, it is a waste of time." I believe this. Yet, even as his words came out of my mouth in a Sunday sermon, I realized that the week in which I had prepared that very sermon was constantly filled with words and music and noise, hum, buzz, growl, laugh, moan... So little SILENCE!
Elsewhere in these pages you will find some guidance on using the psalms for prayer and meditation. You might not be surprised to learn that Psalm 62 is on my mind: "For God alone my soul in silence waits." I propose to spend some of my time each of the days of Lent to allow this to be true, to wait for the Lord, undistracted, in silence. My hope is that, finding silence, my soul will receive Christ on whom my innermost being waits.
Reading Merton reminds me to seek the silence. His words sometimes give me glimpses of the comfort to be found there, in the stillness, with God. He wrote: "I am aware of silence all around me in the country as of a world that is closed to men. They live in it and yet its door is closed to them. This silence, it is everywhere. It is the room Jesus told us to enter into when we pray."
Listen to my gentle plea, dear friend. Hush.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Timothy P. Perkins  , SSC
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October 2002
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