We Must Always Take Sides: A Life-Line

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Daniel J. Miller

Today's Life-Line is: I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. ~ Read more [...]

Life-Line

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Daniel J. Miller

Today's Life-Line is: American culture devalues silence. “Be quiet!” “Shut up!” “Children are meant to be seen, not heard,” all belie an underlying antipathy toward silence. Public and parochial schools offer courses in speech and communication. Read more [...]

For Your Prayerful Pondering

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Daniel J. Miller

She opens her mouth with wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. ~ Proverbs 31: 26 The Things You Do Not Have to Say The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing Read more [...]

Keeping Quiet

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

Thinking of silence and listening, I was reminded yesterday of Pablo Neruda’s poem “Keeping Quiet.” Zookeeper, housekeeper, storekeeper, goalkeeper -- to be a keeper of something is to care for it, to protect it. This is a helpful reminder that Read more [...]

Silence: Another Image

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

Many of you have sent me quotes or lyrics or passages that you have come upon this month that pertain to our theme and/or the reflections that I have sent to you about silence, stillness, listening, etc. Most recently CR came across these lines from Macrina Read more [...]

The White Horn of the Silent Music Truth

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

“To know silence perfectly is to know music.” ~ Carl Sandberg [silence continued] Silence, while being true, is not the truth. The silence is like the white spathe of the calla lily from which emerges the yellow spadix of truth. The white horn Read more [...]

The Silence in the Cave of the Heart

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

“Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” ~Verizon television commercial~ Being silent is not introversion. Nor is it simply a disposition or demeanor. It is not so much how we behave as how we have our being. It is the completely open and actively Read more [...]

Silence: An Experiment with Truth

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

If we are to truly know ourselves, to accept ourselves, without fear of the darkness, and the turmoil within us, we need to cultivate the gift of silence. ~ Kenneth Leech Another image for silence is the milieu where we experiment with truth, to borrow Read more [...]

There is No Such Thing as Dead Silence

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

I am interested in the fullest meaning of being silent. Not so much doing silence, but risking being undone by it. Sitting still in it, yes of course,. But if I’m honest also braving silence or wrestling with it until sweaty and exhausted I collapse Read more [...]

Is Silence Golden?

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Daniel J. Miller

We’ve all heard the adage “silence is golden,” but in and of itself silence is morally neutral. It is what we make of it or what it makes of us that determines whether it is helpful or anemic, healthy or harmful, enlivening or lethal. When prayer Read more [...]

The Sacred Braid

Helping Persons and Communities Weave Lives of Spiritual Depth.

Category Archives: Silence