In the season of Advent silence can be a lot to ask of a person. And yet silence is the sound of Advent. Mary carried a child in the silence of the womb for nine months. It is where we hold space for what we long for – new life, collective healing, yet also the doubt or uncertainty that comes with waiting in silence.

Many of us are tired. To harness moments of silence, whether long or short moments, is to connect with our interior self, our bodies, as well as our dignity in a unique way. The world so often demands our over-working, our exhaustion, our very bodies in the name of productivity and utility. Advent says we can pause and allow ourselves to be held by the silence and stillness. That we can meet a sacred rest in every silent moment, a place of refuge, anchored in hope, love and peace.

During Advent, we are liberated into a restful silence; being able to treasure things in our collective hearts. Advent is both an expectancy and a listening in silence. So in what concrete ways will I carve out time for being silent? There is entirely too much suffering, devastation, injustice, desolation, loneliness, violence and poverty on our planet to continue seeing and practicing Advent as a sentimental season about an infantile Jesus or infantile gospel. Advent is, above all else, a call to be more awake, moving out of our comfort zone in order to be in full consciousness – and paying the price that comes with being that alive. Yes, there is a price to Advent. What am I willing to give up, in order to hold space for what we long for?

Who is being your mirror of compassion, really listening, when you engage with another? Find a friend to be your silence and then be their silence too. #advent Click To Tweet

Thomas Merton says, “Be still. Listen to the stones of the wall. Be silent, they try to speak your name. Listen to the living walls. Who are you? Whose silence are you?” Considering Thomas Merton’s directive, I ask myself, what living walls are in my world? What concrete ways am I not demonstrating how powerful it is to be human, be with those walls- yours and mine? Is that not what Jesus’ birth is about – telling us it’s good to be human and to glorify humanity? So again I ask, “Whose silence are you?” Meaning, who is being your mirror of compassion, really listening, when you engage with another? Find a friend to be your silence and then be their silence too.

There is a price to embracing my humanness, in all its glory and all its suffering. There is a price to pay for engaging with suffering, for “listening to the stones of the wall.” Jesus’ one sermon about the “kingdom” says the kingdom is always here and always not yet here – meaning it’s always arriving, just like Advent. Not yet here. One of our greatest paradoxes of the spiritual journey. Take time in the stillness and quiet to consider this.

Turning our attention to collective silence, we must ask ourselves, what about those who have been forced to be silent? #advent Click To Tweet

Turning our attention to collective silence, we must ask ourselves, what about those who have been forced to be silent? As we think of Advent and inviting silence we carefully and compassionately remember we are not demanding silence from those whose voices most need to be heard, the voices of the marginalized. Silence is holy, something I may have missed in the midst of the chaotic noise of our current world. Silence is the sound of Advent. The space where we wait for what we long for – new life, healing, doubt and uncertainty that comes with waiting in silence.

Questions for contemplation

  1. What does being silent bring to my awareness?
  2. If discomfort arises, how have I avoided this in the past?
  3. Do I experience discomfort, become fidgety, lots of mental activity when I am silent for more then a minute or two?
  4. What might be growing in the silence of my own interior world?
  5. Whose voices are most silent in my world?
  6. How can we raise the voices of communities who aren’t often heard?

Communal Practice for the week:

  • Keeps lights low.
  • Hold silent gathering time. Sit for at least 20 minutes in quiet. Have participants journal if they feel called.
  • After 20 minutes of quiet, silent time, invite individuals to offer ONE WORD into the silent space. It could be something like an emotion (all are welcome: fear, joy, peace, anxiety, grief, sadness, courage, hope, etc.), or an image… try to avoid spiritual bypassing, we don’t need to “run for the light.”

Embodied Practices for the week:

  • Begin your day with 30 minutes of silence – not meditation, just silence. In the morning, move and eat and listen to your body. What hurts? Where are you carrying tension? What do you want to say today?
  • End your day with 30 minutes of silence. In the evenings, try a practice of stillness – choose a word (emotion, desire, longing, fear) and start with that as you go deep into yourself.
  • When you are tired, rest. When hungry, eat. When thirsty, drink. Do this in silence and think that you are taking rest, food, and drink not just for yourself, but for others who cannot.
  • Rise early in the morning. Hear in the stillness of morning what you can’t hear anytime else.

Advent Week 1: In the Dark While We Wait

Advent Week 2: Embodying the Communal Womb

Advent Week 3: Being Silent

Advent Week 4: Acknowledge the Waiting