Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Scott Tunseth.

Today I am moving out of the orbit of Matthew’s Gospel to take a quiet detour. I start with a confession: I am fully convinced of the importance of solitude and spending quiet time in mediation, but I am not good at carving out such space in my life. There’s always too much to do; I am defined by activity. It seems I am just too impatient to keep silence and solitude at the center of my living.

If you are like me, I need gentle reminders of the importance of solitude and silence in the life of faith. So, I turn to two authors, both priests, for reflection. The first is Henri J. M. Nouwen, who says this in his book Out of Solitude:

A life without a lonely place, that is, life without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive. When we cling to the results of our own actions, as our only way of self-identification, then we become possessive and defensive and tend to look at our fellow human beings more as enemies to be kept at a distance than as friends with who we share the gifts of life. . .. In solitude we can grow old freely without being preoccupied with our usefulness and we can offer a service which we had not planned on. (pp. 21, 23)

The second author is Thomas Merton in his book Thoughts on Solitude. There is truth here I know I need to experience more often:

Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. Between the silence of the world and the silence of God . . .. Truth rises from the silence of being to the quiet tremendous presence of the Word. Then, sinking again into silence, the truth of words bears us down into the silence of God. Or rather, God rises up out of the sea like a treasure in the waves, and when language recedes God’s brightness remains on the shores of our own being. (pp. 82-83)

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I encourage you to spend a little quiet time with these reflections today. What “unplanned” gifts emerge? What treasures are washed up on the shore of your being?

Abundant God, bend us toward the beauty of silence and the bounty of solitude. Amen.