Chapter 42: The great silence after Compline
Silence should be sought at all times by monks and nuns and this is especially important for them at night time. (From para. 1 of Ch. 42 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
Silence is an interior knowing that I rest in God at all times.
“Monastics ought to be zealous for silence at all times.” When I can maintain John Main’s “steel in the spine” that the silence, stillness and simplicity that twice-daily meditation requires of me, then you can say to me, Abba, with Thomas Merton, “Now you are free to go in and out of infinity.” (“A Book of Hours”, Saturday, Dawn). Now that, Father, is freedom, indeed.
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