Soul of Nonviolence - Silence Changes Us
“Can we change or improve the world from the perspective of silence? Can mystics build or improve civilization? Words change the world, but only silence changes us. Any reform that is not born of silence will be short lived.”
This week, Veronica uses quotes from Pablo D’Ors and Thomas Merton to demonstrate how silence and contemplation create change. Through stillness we build awareness, which in turn affects those we interact with.
Thus to begin creating change, we must plunge deep, past the noisy, busy mind that distracts us with trivial matters. And the deeper you go, the higher you reach unto God, as Veronica tells us.
In the second quote for this week, we see it from Thomas Merton’s perspective: “When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.”
Without silence, any reform we attempt stays superficial because it lacks the authenticity of the true self. With silence, our spiritual being gets a chance to expand and help us to create profound change.