Fall/Winter 2001/02 Newsletter

Reflection

By Fontaine Williamson

I attended a seven-day, silent retreat at Richmond Hill during the last week of June. On this retreat, we practiced Centering Prayer several times a day.

After 24 hours of silence, including meals, and several periods of Centering Prayer, I was beginning to really sink into the exterior and interior silence. Without conversations, no speaking or listening, there seemed to be some space and emptiness inside me. I wasn't thinking about previous conversations or wishing I had said this or that or reacting to what someone else had said.

We were told to come to the chapel five minutes before each prayer time or Eucharist service, so as to be quiet and ready in our seats when it was time to begin.

As I was sitting and waiting before our first Eucharist together, I looked around at the other participants and the priest. Everyone was sitting quietly in their seats. This seemed different to me. Usually when people are waiting in church, they might be talking to someone or looking around at whoever has just arrived or reading their bulletins. We were just sitting and waiting in silence for five minutes. No one was fidgeting, looking at their watch or rustling papers or books. There was no agenda - it was all right to just sit and wait. All that was required of us was to do the next thing - to sit, to eat, to pray, to just "be" in the silence. There was a surrender of the will in following this discipline.

With that surrender and obedience came freedom. With the giving up of thoughts, words, agendas and control came joy and peace. I felt as if I truly knew what the psalmist means when he says, "For God alone my soul in silence waits." (Ps. 62.5) I was just waiting, nowhere to go, nothing to do but wait. Joyful waiting. Peaceful waiting. Waiting for Jesus.

Many of you may have experienced times of silence, times of waiting. Some of them may have been sad, lonely or painful times. Perhaps if one of those times comes again, you will remember that you are not alone. Perhaps you will listen and know that God is with you always, that in the silence God waits also for you. And in that silence is peace and joy.

"For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17

Other Newsletter Articles:
The Theological Foundations  | President's Letter 
Spanish Corner | Locked Up ... And Free | Reflection  
Imprisonment and Transformation | 2001 Updates 
The Central American Experience