Hush, Mind

30 Jun

“Quiet the mind and the soul will speak.”  ~ Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

I have a mind that cannot or will not shut down.  It is constantly thinking through things, evaluating things, planning things, et cetera.  It can be a bit distressing.  It has caused me many a sleepless night.  I think we probably all have been in that place at one time or another.

For those of us who try to improve our spiritual lives in order to deepen our relationship with God, we find the same dilemma taking place.  When we try to pray, we are often bombarded by a mind that will not let go.  We might carve out a bit of time for silent prayer and our mind does its ol’ evaluation number:  what happened earlier today or yesterday, what am I going to do today, what can I do tomorrow or next week or next year?  All these “earthly” questions and concerns creep in when we try to take the time to pray.

We need to learn to quiet our mind so that our soul has a chance to communicate with God without  any distractions.  That is simple to say but difficult to do.  There are many prayer practices that try to help in that regard.  Mantras, guided reflection, and other techniques have been employed to help quiet the mind.

At the beginning of this week, some of our seminarians have joined a group of other seminarians around the country out west at a thirty day silent retreat.  As you can well imagine, thirty days of silence is a daunting task.

One of the things that happens in the first few days of silence is that the mind absolutely cuts loose with all sorts of thoughts.  It can be incredibly frustrating and distracting.  After those first few days, though, there comes a time for the soul to open up and speak with God and for God to communicate to the person.  It can be a deeply moving experience.

We might not be able to get away for thirty days to pray in silence but it would behoove us to create some time, preferably each day, to spend in silent prayer.  The first thing we will need to address is the quieting of our minds.  Once we get in the practice, though, we will be able to enter into deeper communication with God.

FAITH ACTION:  Pray for our seminarians who are on a thirty day silent retreat, that they might be able to quiet their minds in order to hear the Lord speak to them.