The A-Z of Believing: Q is for Quietness

Ed Kessler, head of the Woolf Institute, presents the seventeenth part in a series on belief and scepticism

Silence offers a way to ponder and listen for the divine – the unsayable and inexplicable (Shutterstock/agsandrew)

There is a time to keep quiet, and a time to speak – Ecclesiastes 3:7

While silence is regarded as an authentic medium of prayer, it isn’t common religious practice, even though the ability to listen to God in quiet is a common biblical theme. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him”, as the Psalmist says.

Being quiet is not something that is easily found where we are distracted by bright lights and pulled at by worldly matters, rarely hearing the music above the noise. This may be why Quietism, the name given in Roman Catholic theology to contemplation and intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, never became popular, and was even deemed a heresy by Pope Innocent XI in 1687. The movement appealed primarily to monks, religious hermits, and other ascetics. Its aim was to “quiet” the soul so that it could become one with God and eventually achieve a sinless state.