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.)

With external silence, I can still drum up a great deal of fantasy, distraction, suffering. Sometimes my urge to languish in disconsolation is strong. But, what I also know from my own experience is that true silence is an interior knowing that I am always at rest in God. I must keep remembering to turn toward that stillness.