“The Blessing of Stillness and Silence” by Philippa Linton: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

10 Jun 2022

How can we find stillness in a busy, chaotic world? And why should we seek to be countercultural in this quest? Philippa shares from her own journey of embracing silence as a way of encountering God. I hope you can find some time to quiet yourself today and enter into God’s loving presence:

As I drove into the car park, surrounded by dark trees on a chilly autumn evening, I felt peace wash over me. It was October, 1989, and I had booked a weekend at a picturesque retreat house in West Sussex called St Julian’s, run by an Anglican lay community. I have been on many retreats since then but that first taste of stillness and silence at St Julian’s remains a special memory.

Years later, I am still very much a novice at practicing stillness and silence. My prayer life is often fickle and inconsistent. Yet I hold before me the promise of stillness and silence as beautiful gateways to God’s presence.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. Mark 1:35 (NRSV)

Jesus launches his ministry in a blaze of power – proclaiming the kingdom of God, calling four fishermen to follow him, delivering a man from an evil spirit in a local synagogue, and healing Peter’s mother-in-law. By nightfall there are crowds outside the door, bringing the sick to be healed by this amazing young rabbi. With all this desperate human need surrounding him, what does Jesus do the next day? Very early in the morning, before dawn, he gets up, leaves the house where he and his companions are staying, and heads to a solitary, deserted place, where he prays.

Perhaps he chose somewhere quiet in the hills above the sea of Galilee. Wherever this lonely place was, it was just him alone with his Father. His first priority is to be alone with the Father and spend precious time with him, before resuming his ministry. If the Son of God himself needed to do this, while he was here on earth, how much more do I.

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1 (NRSV)

This verse awakens in me a deep yearning to wait for God in stillness and silence, to receive his love and his perfect peace. It’s so simple to come humbly before God in stillness and silence, to quieten my dark thoughts and troubled impulses, so that he can meet with me and I with him. Yet it can be so hard, because there’s so much within me and without me that distracts me from following God.

I have learned that I don’t have to be in a house of prayer, or a beautiful garden, or even alone in the hills, surrounded by the beauty of creation, in order to find God’s presence. He is always there. I can enter stillness and silence even in the musty, noisy, claustrophobic chaos of the London Underground. Just by focusing my breathing and praying the name of Jesus either silently or under my breath, I can centre my being and become aware that God is here with me all the time and can pour his peace into my heart any time. It doesn’t matter where I am. It doesn’t matter what’s going on. Just as Jesus met with his Father in intimacy and solitude, so I too can enter that intimacy and solitude with the Father and the Son.

Entering prayer through stillness and silence leads me more deeply into a loving awareness of God. It’s so simple … and God never stops inviting me to come ever closer and deeper.

Philippa Linton is the administrator for the education and learning office of the United Reformed Church. She is also an Anglican lay minister. She wrote a devotional for the anthology ‘Light for the Writer’s Soul’, published by Media Associates International, and her short story ‘Magnificat’ appears in the ACW Christmas Anthology.