The Silence of the Heart

by Mother Teresa

Be still and know that I am God.

IF WE REALLY want to pray, we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God, we need a clean heart, for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God.

When it is difficult to pray, we must help ourselves to do so. The first means to use is silence, for souls of prayer are souls of great silence. We cannot put ourselves directly in the presence of God if we do not practice internal and external silence.

God is the friend of silence.

Let us adore Jesus in our hearts, who spent thirty years out of thirty-three in silence, who began his public life by spending forty days in silence, who often retired alone to spend the night on a mountain in silence. He who spoke with authority, now spends his earthly life in silence. Let us adore Jesus in the eucharistic silence.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in perfect silence -- see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. Is not our mission to give God to the poor in the slums? Not a dead God but a living, loving God. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.

Silence gives us a new outlook on everything.


Taken from Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Kathryn Spink and Mother Teresa (New York: HarperCollins, 1983).