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Chapter 15MoyenCourt.1.15

CHAPITRE XIV.

The Necessity of Interior Silence

Interior silence is essential because the eternal Word requires a receptive, quiet soul to be heard.

1. 2. On interior silence: its reason: God recommends it. 3. Outward silence, withdrawal, and the return into yourself all contribute to it.1 1. The (b) Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.2 The reason interior silence is so necessary is that the Word, being the eternal and essential Word, requires, in order to be received in the soul, a disposition that has some correspondence to what he is.3 (b) Habakkuk.✦4 2.✦ v.✦ 20.✦

The Passive Art of Listening

True prayer is a passive, receptive act of listening to God's voice, as illustrated by various prophetic and psalmic calls to attention.

Now it is certain that to receive the word, you must lend an ear and listen.✦ Hearing is the sense made to receive the word communicated to it.✦ Hearing is more passive than active; it receives rather than communicates. Since the Word is the word that must communicate itself to the soul and revive it, the soul must be attentive to this same Word, who wants to speak to it from within.✦✦5 2. That is why there are so many passages urging us to listen to God and to pay attention to his voice. Many of them could be noted; we must content ourselves with citing these. (a) Listen to me, all you who are my people: nation that I have chosen, hear my voice.✦ (b) Listen to me, all of you whom I carry in my bosom, and whom I enclose in my inmost parts.✦6 (c) Listen, my daughter, see and lend your ear: forget the house of your father, and the King will conceive a love for your beauty.✦ (a) Isaiah.✦ 51. v. 4.✦ (b) Ibid.✦7 46. v. 3.✦ (c) Ps. 44. v. 12.✦

Cultivating the Inward Path

Outward withdrawal supports inward recollection, and the soul must faithfully return to this interior state throughout the day.

You must listen to God and give him your attention, forget yourself, and all self-interest: these two actions alone, or rather passions, for this is thoroughly passive, attract the love of the beauty that he himself communicates.8 3. Outward silence is very necessary for cultivating inward silence; and it is impossible to become interior without loving silence and withdrawal. God tells us this through the mouth of his Prophet: (d) I will lead her into solitude, and there I will speak to her heart.✦ (d; Hosea 2.9 v. 14.✦ How can you be occupied with God inwardly while also occupying yourself outwardly with a thousand trifles? That is impossible. When your weakness leads you to scatter yourself, you need to turn back inward; you must be faithful to that return every time you find yourself distracted and scattered. It would count for little to pray and recollect yourself for half an hour or an hour if you did not keep the unction and the spirit of prayer throughout the day.10

Read the original French

1. 2. Du Silence intérieur : sa raison : Dieu le recommande.

3. Le Silence extérieur, la retraite, & le retour en soi, y contribuent.

1. LE (b) Seigneur est dans son saint Temple, que toute la terre demeure en silence devant lui. La raison pour laquelle le silence intérieur est si nécessaire, c’est que le Verbe étant la parole éternelle & essentielle, il faut, afin qu’il soit reçu dans l’ame, une disposition qui ait quelque rapport à ce qu’il est.

(b) Habac. 2. v. 20.

Or il est certain que pour recevoir la parole, il faut prêter l’oreille & écouter. L’ouïe est le sens qui est fait pour recevoir la parole qui lui est communiquée. L’ouïe est un sens plus passif qu’actif, qui reçoit, & ne communique pas. Le Verbe étant la parole qui doit se communiquer à l’ame, & la revivifier, il faut qu’elle soit attentive à ce même Verbe, qui veut lui parler au-dedans d’elle.

2. C’est pourquoi il y a tant d’endroits qui nous exhortent d’écouter Dieu, & de nous rendre attentifs à sa voix. On en pourroit marquer beaucoup ; il se faut contenter de rapporter ceux-ci. (a) Ecoutez-moi vous tous qui êtes mon Peuple : Nation que j’ai choisie, entendez ma voix. (b) Ecoutez-moi vous tous que je porte dans mon sein, & que je renferme dans mes entrailles. (c) Ecoutez, ma fille, voyez & prêtez l’oreille : oubliez la maison de votre Pere, & le Roi concevra de l’amour pour votre beauté.

(a) Isa. 51. v. 4.

(b) Ibid. 46. v. 3.

(c) Ps. 44. v. 12.

Il faut écouter DIEU & se rendre attentif à lui, s’oublier soi-même, & tout propre intérêt : ces deux seules actions, ou plutôt passions, car cela est fort passif, attirent l’amour de la beauté que lui-même communique.

3. Le silence extérieur est très-nécessaire pour cultiver le silence intérieur ; & il est impossible de devenir intérieur sans aimer le silence & la retraite. Dieu nous le dit par la bouche de son Prophête : (d) Je la menerai dans la solitude, & là je parlerai à son cœur.

(d; Osée 2. v. 14.

Le moyen d’être occupé de Dieu intérieurement & de s’occuper extérieurement de mille bagatelles ? cela est impossible.

Lorsque la foiblesse vous a porté à vous répandre au-déhors, il faut faire un petit retour au-dedans, auquel il faut être fidéle toutes les fois que l’on est distrait & dissipé.

Ce seroit peu de faire Oraison & se recueillir durant demi-heure ou une heure, si on ne conservoit pas l’onction & l’esprit d’Oraison durant le jour.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Hab.2.20 — But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
  2. ↩Hab.2.20 — But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
  3. ↩Hab.2.20 — But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
  4. ↩Hab.2.20 — But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
  5. ↩Isa.55.3;Rom.10.17 — Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, and your soul shall live. And I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the steadfast mercies of David. Rom.10.17 — So then, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
  6. ↩Rom.10.17 — So then, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
  7. ↩John.1.1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  8. ↩Isa.55.3;John.6.63 — Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, and your soul shall live. And I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the steadfast mercies of David. John.6.63 — It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
  9. ↩Isa.51.4 — Give ear to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation; for instruction will go out from me, and I will establish my justice as a light for the peoples.
  10. ↩Isa.46.3 — Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, carried from the womb, borne from birth.
  11. ↩Ps.45.10-Ps.45.11 — Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Ps.45.11 — Listen, daughter, and see; incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house.
  12. ↩Isa.51.4 — Give ear to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation; for instruction will go out from me, and I will establish my justice as a light for the peoples.
  13. ↩Isa.51.4 — Give ear to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation; for instruction will go out from me, and I will establish my justice as a light for the peoples.
  14. ↩Isa.46.3 — Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, carried from the womb, borne from birth.
  15. ↩Isa.46.3 — Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, carried from the womb, borne from birth.
  16. ↩Ps.44.12 — You give us up like sheep to be eaten, and among the nations you scatter us.
  17. ↩Hos.2.14 — And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, which she said, "These are my wages, which my lovers gave me"; and I will make them a forest, and the wild beasts will devour them.
  18. ↩Hos.2.14 — And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, which she said, "These are my wages, which my lovers gave me"; and I will make them a forest, and the wild beasts will devour them.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩French y is anaphoric: these three help toward interior silence, the subject of the chapter.
  2. 2 ↩Source marker (b) sits on this sentence; the following printed note points to Habakkuk 2:20.
  3. 3 ↩French pairs Verbe (the Logos) with parole (speech/word). Both are rendered Word; 'essential' keeps the metaphysical sense of essentielle, not 'necessary.'
  4. 4 ↩French Habac. is the abbreviated book name Habacuc (Habakkuk); the (b) marker points back to the preceding quotation.
  5. 5 ↩The French moves from hearing ordinary speech (parole) to receiving the eternal Word (Verbe). The word/Word distinction preserves that analogy.
  6. 6 ↩entrailles keeps the biblical bodily image (bowels/womb/inward parts); rendered 'inmost parts' to avoid medical or purely archaic 'bowels' while not flattening it to a vague 'heart'.
  7. 7 ↩Ibid. is kept as the conventional citation form for “in the same place,” here pointing back to Isaiah.
  8. 8 ↩Passions here is technical: not violent feelings, but being acted upon. Guyon immediately explains that the two ‘actions’ are in fact deeply passive.
  9. 9 ↩The printed source reads “(d; Osée 2.” The origin of the semicolon-shaped closing mark is indeterminate: it may be a misprint or a damaged parenthesis. The marker letter, wording, and citation are clear; the visible form is retained.
  10. 10 ↩"Unction" renders onction: the remaining spiritual anointing of prayer, not a sacramental rite.

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