Grant Yourself Silence
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We do not have the courage to get to know ourselves. We do not have the courage to get to know Christ. Why?
Hours, days and years are spent in running and worrying, often for insignificant things. Our heart cannot be calmed, and restlessness becomes a permanent state of our being. Many times we cannot do without the congestion and the presence of silence drives us crazy.
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many thing. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10: 38-42)
We are afraid of the silence because there, our own self will begin to be revealed and it will take courage to see (face) the truth, to admit our mistakes and omissions, to make important decisions for change and repentance.
Silence is a way to discover our own self, enter our hearts, find and discover the diamonds, but also to throw the garbage in the rubbish bin. Grant yourself silence. Give yourself an hour a day to meet Christ. How? With half an hour of prayer and half an hour of reading spiritual literature. Can you not do that much? Do less, but do it. Pray for ten minutes and spend ten minutes in reading the Scriptures, biographies of the holy fathers, in the reading of the simple advice from the saints, but no less than that. It is the same as breastfeeding the baby of your soul. Do not deprive the soul of this food, because otherwise, you put it in the orbit of death.
Let that hour be your Paradise, your workshop in which you will have to look, fix, establish things and move on to healing. And come to Church a little earlier. Turn off your cell phone and tablet. Refrain yourself from the passions, stand in front of the iconostasis, and listen to the blessings of the priest. This is enough. Do you want to keep a personal diary? Do it! But stand on the rock of the abyss to describe the reality as it is and to realize where your guilt is when your deeds, words, and your life do not sweet-smelling like Paradise at all.
Before you go to work in the morning, get up a little earlier, light an incense, settle down, calm down and pray. Read two or three lines of the God’s word. Cross yourself and go with your companion Christ. And everything will go well. Go with the blessing!
At first, your soul may not easily get used to all of this. It is like telling a stubborn child to sit still. But you will gradually calm down. You will gradually gain peace of mind, then the dialogue will begin and you will finally take the tools in your hands. When silence walks on the rails of patience, then the train of the soul will safely reach its final destination. Allow silence to enter your lives when your worries haunt you. Silence is a child’s room in which we talk to our soul and we can tell the Creator about everything that concerns us. And there, in our silence, let the first syllables of the prayer’s cry flow.
Elder Emilian says: “As you love your wife or your husband, likewise love peace and quiet, and then you will love God much more than all men. A busy and tired person cannot love God and can do nothing.
A man who tears his life between thousands of adventures, deeds, interests, worries, a man who loves everything and in everything wants to hear his word only, is be incapable of doing anything. Therefore, my brother, find time, even at ten or eleven o’clock at night, when you put your children to sleep, alone or with your wife or each one separately, enter your heart and listen to it.
I will end with a piece of advice from the late Elder Emilian Simonopetriski: “Let us find time to become wordless, alone with God. As you sit in front of the TV and the TV swallows you and makes you forget everything, find something that is TV in heaven, that makes you think of the angels and remember the saints who are around us at all times. A little silence and a little struggle, which we have to do and which will be our rule. Then begins the beautiful path of repentance and salvation.
Author: o. Spiridon Scutis
Source: .bogonosci.bg
For Preminportal: Simeon Stefkovski
July 2021 year of the Lord
https://preminportal.com.mk/polez…/24335-podari-si-tishina
