The greatest need we have is to be silent before our great God with our appetite and our tongue, for the language He hears best is silent love alone.
St John of the Cross
Greetings dear family of our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ; may Jesus, The Light Of The World, be the sunshine of your life that the clouds of despair may never darken your soul. Amen
St John tells us that the language God hears best is “Silent love;” and to obtain this love we need to still our “tongue” and our “appetite” in God’s presence. It is in this silence that God speaks to the soul, and it is in putting aside all our many earthly “appetites” that we open our hearts to the receiving of God’s grace. Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us – it is there that we must look for God. One of the tools to help us to do this is meditation; it has been said that we seek God in books, but we find Him in meditation (St Padre Pio).
Meditation is simply focusing our gaze upon God with the eyes of the soul. When thinking about the art of meditation the other day, the sunflower plant came to my mind. The sunflower plant will move its head throughout the day as the sun passes across the sky, it will keep its large face always turned to the warmth of the sun. We should try to imitate the sunflower, keeping the eyes of our souls always looking to Jesus, the SUN of God. In this way we shall continually bask in the warmth of His comforting grace, and we shall grow in love, as He nourishes our souls with the nutrients of His Divine Light. It is in this practice, “Practising the presence of God,” as brother Lawrence calls it, that we shall acquire our Christian joy, and it is this joy that will carry us through all of our trials.
Joseph Hall, put it like this: “What are we the warmer, if we pass hastily along by the hearth, and stay not at it?” Yes, we need to sit and bask in the fire of Jesus’ love, then our hearts will be set ablaze with that same fire of love. We need to be constantly in the presence of Jesus putting away all our earthly attractions and practising that “silent love”.
Father, as the Sunflower keeps its head facing the warmth of the Sun, may we Your children, keep the eyes of our souls facing Jesus, Your Son, that we may bathe in the warmth of His love. May our souls blossom in the light of Christ’s grace, becoming like Him, that we may enrich this world with the vibrant colours of His divine image. Amen.
