The Gift of Silence Leads to a Better Understanding of Jesus

Enter Into The Mystery

“If you seek God and want to find him; if you desire a life of the most intimate union with him, silence is the most direct path and the surest means of attaining it.  Silence is of capital importance because it enables the Church to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, imitating his thirty silent years in Nazareth, his forty days and forty nights of fasting and intimate dialogue with the Father in the solitude and silence of the desert.  Like Jesus, confronted with the demands of his Father’s will, we must seek silence in order to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ.”  Robert Sarah The Power of Silence

If you seek to understand more deeply the mystery of Jesus a good starting point would be to share time with him in the silence of our Adoration Chapel.  Your mind cannot comprehend the happiness you bring to Our Lord when you are willing to spend some of your precious time in his presence in this unique way.  Discover for yourself the knowledge and peace that comes to us through Eucharistic Adoration.

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 The Reality Of The Cross, The Host, And The Virgin

“There is nothing littler, meeker, or more silent than Christ present in the Host.  This little piece of bread embodies the humility and perfect silence of God, his tenderness and his love for us.  If we want to grow and to be filled with the love of God, it is necessary to plant our life firmly on three great realities:  the Cross, the Host, and the Virgin.  These are three mysteries that God gave to the world in order to structure, fructify, and sanctify our interior life and to lead us to Jesus.  These three mysteries are to be contemplated in silence.”
 (The Power of Silence (57) - Robert Cardinal Sarah)

A good place to contemplate in silence is in the Adoration Chapel.  If you haven’t tried it stop denying yourself this great gift from God of peace and the feeling of being loved by our creator.

I Thirst For You … Come to me, and I will fill your heart and heal your wounds.  I will make you a new creation, and give you peace in all your trials.

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The Beauty Of Silence

 If You Haven’t Listened To Silence, You’ve Missed A Beautiful Experience

Silence is an indispensable part of the spiritual life.  In fact, often we can gauge our spiritual health on how much we can tolerate and enter into silence.  If we cannot sit in silent prayer for even a few short moments, then this should be a red flag to us.  Our union with Christ is dependent on some level of silence.  Now, depending upon our state in life, this is easier said than done, but even the busiest of moms and dads must find a few moments a day to enter into silent prayer.

It’s easy to turn Mass and prayer time into one more thing to do on our to-do list.  Because most of society is part of a 24/7 consumer culture keeping us in a state hurried and distracted so that proper attention to ‘prayer time’ is impossible to maintain.  To correct this we start by taking back control of our ‘time’.  Control comes in small measure.  Start by asking the Holy Spirit for help; followed by identifying your ‘time wasters’ and cancelling the activity or redirecting the ‘time’ for better use.  This is one way to capture small amounts of time that can be used for silent prayer.  (Inspired by an article “The Lack of Silence” by Constance T. Hull)

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We Can Hear God's Voice In The Silence

 God’s Voice

C. S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters tells us that the devil’s goal is to win souls away from God.  The devil’s plan is simple: Create so much noise in the world that man can no longer hear the voice of God in his life.

God has given us a solution … It’s the gift of ‘silence’.  It is in silence that God speaks to us, and the more time we spend in silence the more clearly we hear the voice of God in our lives.  Quiet is critical to our spiritual development.  Stop by the chapel for some ‘quiet time’.

Sign up for a regular hour of Adoration .. God loves it when you make a commitment. 

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God Waits For You

He Waits For You!

Many people visit the Adoration Chapel to be able to sit quietly in the Presence of God and experience the solace of the surroundings during normal activities of the day.  Some adorers are ‘committed’; as such they have volunteered for a specific time each week.  You don’t have to be a ‘committed’ adorer to spend time in the chapel; you can visit when your schedule permits.  No matter when you go He is waiting for you and wants to hear about your life, your joys, your sorrows.  In His presence it’s a good time to recall how He was insulted, publicly humiliated, and suffered for us to save us from eternal damnation.  This is a time we can thank Him for what He did, tell Him how much we love Him, and give Him thanks for all the graces and blessings He gives us.  It is a time we can talk to Him as a friend who always has time to listen.

Adoration helps us grow through silence.  While sitting in his presence we grow spiritually and it doesn’t take long to experience these changes positively affecting our lives.  These changes improve our relationship with God, and as our relationship improves we find ourselves wanting to spend more time in His presence, and we begin looking for additional opportunities for chapel time.

Pope Francis in a recent Angelus said, “Through silence and prayer, we make space for Jesus”.

Through Silence We Grow

 Why Practice Silence

Pope Benedict XVI insisted on the fact ‘we live in a society in which it seems that every space, every moment, must be filled with projects, activities and noise; there is often no time to just listen.’  When we can’t quiet ourselves and simply ‘listen’ we often miss the voice of God and the message He wishes to convey to us personally.  Many church leaders have commented that “Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation,  In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and rest in God.”

The one who practices silence is the one who can create true balance in their life.  In the silence of our hearts, God speaks to us, and pours His grace in the form of wisdom, temperance, fortitude, and hope.  As a result, we can only react in an outpouring of this love through charity.  He is the potter, we are the clay, and as He molds us into containers that can hold the weight of His love, He fills us up in contemplative silence until it overflows into our active works of mercy.

Experience first hand God’s wonderful gift of peace He bestows on all who simply sit silently in His presence.  He’s waiting for you in the Adoration Chapel.

All 'Time' Is A Gift From God

 ‘Time’ Is A Gift … and God gives you the gift of the next two minutes to read this!

"Love Me and show your love for Me by offering Me the gift of your time.  Be like the candle that exists only to burn itself out in My presence.  It is enough that you are there in My presence, offering Me the flame of your love and allowing yourself to be consumed in quiet adoration.

Speak to Me freely, or simply remain in silence.  I do not ask for many words; I ask for your companionship, for your presence, and for the loving attention of your heart.  Thus will you attain to the union with Me that I desire for you: a fruitful union by which you will abide in Me and I in you.

Give Me this, the sacrifice of your time in My presence, and I will give you all else, even those things that, at the moment, seem impossible."

  (In Sinu Jesu  p.264)

How can you turn down an offer to gain ‘all else’ by not giving back to the Lord a small portion of the ‘time’ that He has gifted to you?  Doesn’t have to be a lot … just be there.  See you in the chapel.

 Thank You Lord For The Gift Of Eucharistic Adoration!

“When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then.  When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now.”

   Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“St Paul wrote that the transforming power of gazing upon the Eucharist changes us into His likeness.”  (2 Cor 3:18)

“To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed.  You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all.  All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face.

   St Teresa of Avila

“Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament has His hands full of graces, and He is ready to bestow them on anyone who asks for them.”

   St Peter of Alcantara

“Silence in the religious sense signifies God-awareness.  What matters in silence is not our external situation but our inner disposition.  It is a matter, not of keeping our mouth shut, but of opening our heart to God.”

   Kallistos Ware

Why don’t you join the growing number of fellow parishioners who are making a weekly hour in the Adoration Chapel part of their regular routine.  Click here to find a convenient hour:  https://adorationpro.org/schedule.php?org=ihmmi&languageMain=english

“Go, gather, teach, pray.”   Our Lady of Good Help

 An Hour Of Adoration Is A Waste Of Time …

That’s exactly what the devil wants you to think.

Truth is, outside the Celebration of the Mass, there is no more worthwhile hour that you can spend for the wellbeing of your soul.  The devil would be ecstatic if the Adoration Chapels of the world could not get enough volunteers to maintain their Adoration schedules before the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior.  If you want to help raise hell in Hell just go spend an hour in our chapel.  

Most people pray when they do go to the chapel.  But you don’t have to - there’s no preferred ‘practice’ for Adoration behavior … it’s a time for just you and Jesus to be together in a special way.  Jesus says to you “come; let’s go over here and talk, just the two of us”.  You talk to him the same way you do to a friend at a backyard barbecue.  

Another chapel practice is to just sit quietly and LISTEN.  St. John of the Cross wrote in the sixteenth century “silence is God’s first language”.  If you sit quietly and listen with an open heart you begin to feel the indwelling Trinity starting to change your heart.  Once that happens you can’t help not moving towards true happiness.

Adoration helps us rely on the Holy Spirit and live a life of obedience in prayer.

We are transformed from someone asking for a sign, to someone seeking sight through understanding.  Adoration helps to maintain a daily prayer practice the rest of the week.

Practice Silence To Hear God

There are few things that help us converse with God more than 'silence'!

What we mean is 'interior silence', or what some call the inner silence of the heart.  If you don't have this inner silence of the heart you're not going to be able hear the voice of God.  Anyone can develop this inner silence; to do so you begin by practicing exterior silence.

When Jesus' followers asked Him to teach them to pray He advised them: “when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Matt 6:6)  As you practice exterior silence, God is gifting you with the 'silence of the heart' that you need to hear Him talking to you.

The effects of 'silence' are cumulative.  The more you practice it - the better you get at it - the better you get at it - the better your relationship with God.

The next time you are in the Adoration Chapel try to sit for a few minutes quietly in Gods' presence.
Try not to use your mind in any way to pray.  Try not to think about dinner, or what shopping needs to be done, or tomorrows doctors appointment.  Just consciously be with God - sitting in the same room with His Being.  As you sit quietly in His presence you begin to grasp in your heart the great love He has for you.  The beautiful thing is you don't have to say a word because He knows what is in your heart, and you perceive that knowledge.

As you practice this exterior silence you will notice the change in your ability to use the interior silence to improve your relationship with God.  As your relationship gets better you will find more peace and joy.

"Lord, teach us to pray"

If you are not already a regular Adorer, you may want to consider becoming one.  Check out our openings on the website:

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

God's Beautiful Silence

The wisdom of the Eastern tradition teaches that the more one increases in knowledge of God, the more one realizes that God is unknowable.  Only through what Pope John Paul II calls “adoring silence” does one grow closer to experiencing God’s presence.  

St Faustina learned this mysterious language of God called silence: 'The Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and garrulous.  He speaks by His quiet inspiration to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence (Diary, 553)

A deep abiding joy is one of the fruits of an hour of Adoration

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