THE
P RTAL
September 2017
Page 9
Silence at the heart
of the Faith
Fr Julian Green encourages us to spend some time
each day in silence
I
t is over ten years since the compelling film Into Great Silence was released in the UK. On that occasion
I went with a group of students from the University of Birmingham Catholic chaplaincy, where I was then
chaplain, to the little arts centre near the cricket ground at Edgbaston.
The idea of the film is to present
not just a day in the life of the
Carthusian monastery La Grande
Chartreuse in the French Alps,
but also the turning of the seasons
from one year to the next. The film
is almost three hours long and is in
almost complete silence save for the
sounds of chant, the snow or rain
falling, the clock, and the noises
of the monk moving around his
cell, which resembles an alpine log
cabin.
God. He continues saying that he
cannot think why anyone would
want to go on living on this earth
without the knowledge of God and
his love for us.
The Cross stands as the remin der,
not only at the heart of September
but at the heart of the life of the
Christian, of God’s profound love
for the world. That’s what that great
verse John 3:16 sums up so concisely:
that Good loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in
I say that the film was compelling, but in reality, him may not die, but may have eternal life.
the first ten minutes went so slowly that I thought I
While we may be caught up in all sorts of business,
would be bored. It was only after resigning myself to
the silence and getting caught up in the rhythm of activities, routines, projects...it is our duty and our
repetition from day to day and season to season, that joy to give way to the centrality of the Cross, the sign
I was able to transcend the boredom and discover the of God’s immense love for us every day. The recent
book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence,
beauty and compelling nature of the silence.
proposes that the greatest crisis for Christians today is
I begin this month’s column with this reminiscence the lack of silence. Without silence we cannot pray, we
because the motto of the Carthusian order is Stat crux cannot plumb the depths of God.
dum volvitur orbis, that is, “the Cross stands firm while
Without silence in our daily lives, our faith remains
the world continues to turn”. If we look at the liturgical
calendar of September, standing firm at the heart of as one thing among many in our lives, competing
for attention, and often suffering being excluded as
the month is the Holy Cross.
we have so many other things to do. Not only is this
The feast the Exaltation of the Cross on 14th a crisis for us individually, but also as the Church.
September stands as a fitting reminder, during this Without silence and the contemplation of the love
month when we return to the normal business of our of God, the liturgy we celebrate suffers, our ability to
lives after the lazy days of August, that alongside all the focus on the ills of the world offering hope fails, and
ever-changing affairs of the world and of our lives, the our steadfastness in the face of every encouragement
to abandon God falls apart.
Cross stands firm at the centre for Christians.
Towards the end of the film, as I remember it, one
monk alone is given the task of speaking to camera, a
blind elderly monk. He spoke so simply and beautifully
and at the same time profoundly. At one point he stops
what he is saying, and simply remarks that it is such
a pity that people in the world have lost the sense of
So as we return to work and normal activity, let us
heed the call to discover the place of silence in our
prayer and not shy away from it. It may involve pain
to separate ourselves from the stimuli which surround
us, but our spiritual lives and the vitality of the Church
depend on doing so.