Musing on Solitude and Silence

Most recently I read Henri Nouwen’ s “The Way of the Heart” and found it absolutely wonderful. Almost right off the bat, on Page 16, the statement of: “Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter – the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self” is one I both agree with and think is incomplete. Certainly it is in solitude we come face to face with our compulsions that serve to make us something or someone other than who we truly are – God’s beloved. But it’s the second part, the encounter with the loving God, that I think is incomplete. While God is encountered in solitude, I also believe God’s loving presence is encountered in community and in the other person (not to mention in nature). The challenge is to look at another and see the face of God – to see that they too are God’s beloved, whether we happen to like that person or not. The face of God is in all – rich and poor, well off and destitute, beautiful and not so pretty...

In his section on silence Nouwen writes, “The word no longer communicates, no longer fosters communion, no longer creates community, and therefore no longer gives life” (pages 38-9). This I agree with wholeheartedly! So many words fill any given day – written and spoken words, conversations, commands, television, emails, newspapers, etc. It’s really easy to “turn a deaf ear” when we feel word-overloaded – when the words we hear and read no longer are life-giving for us. Our society in general is not comfortable with silence…and yet, it is precisely silence we need…desperately. We almost feel odd when we are comfortable with, even crave, silence. But...we can best hear the voice of the Holy One in the depths of our heart when we are surrounded by silence.