There is much unexpected truth in the silence when Elijah encounters God. God is not in the strong wind, nor the earthquake, nor in the fire, but he was in the tiny whispering sound. Elijah encountered God in the silence. I can think of myself on a 30 day silent retreat. The retreatants came from all parts of the United States. Few of us knew each other. What was surprising was how the silence bonded us together for the four summers in our pursuit of an applied spirituality degree.

Another experience I have enjoyed is the daily hour of adoration silence which I had with my Jesus Caritas fraternity during our Month of Nazareth. Each morning we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament as a group to adore the Eucharistic presence of Jesus. This had the high value of bonding us as a group. The fraternity requires each one of us to make an hour of solitary silent adoration each day before the Silence of Jesus in the Sacrament. I am alert for the sounds of silence that can come from many sources in this prayer time. During one of the Months of Nazareth I made in California we were in a small chapel with windows open and we heard the sounds of birds singing as well as the peaceful sounds of carpenters with their hammer and tools constructing new homes. It was easy to think of Joseph at work in Nazareth. There is something unique about a group together in silent adoration. All of us have the same focus on Jesus in the Sacrament and Jesus returns our gaze with communication to each one in a special way. It does weave a holy web of unity for all of us. We are spiritual brothers who become one in Eucharistic prayer.

When in solitary, silent adoration in the church it helps me to pull myself together, makes me feel more compact, more in touch with my inner self, more easily surrendering myself to the Lord of Love.

I have an epitaph on the footstone of my grave in my hometown cemetery which has a short five word quotation of Jesus in John’s gospel, “Live on in my love.” Deep silence, even the silence of death, lets me live on in the love of Jesus. There is no more death, only Life and Love.

When my best priest friend was dying in 1998 his breath became softer and softer until in the middle of the night it became “Silent night, holy night.” No more breathing, only the passage from mother earth to bosom of God where love reigns supreme and we know at last, and fully, like St. John, that “God is love.”

- Fr. Gerald Keefe