A Place of Silence
The blessed Dominic ‘rarely spoke except with God in prayer, or about God, and he exhorted the brethren to do likewise.’ Pondering this in their hearts, the nuns should make of their house, and especially of their hearts, a place of silence.
This passage from our Constitutions calls us to imitate Saint Dominic in his great virtue of silence. The Dominican monastery is meant to be a place of silence—silence that empties us of ourselves, relieves anxiety, and removes unnecessary distractions in our lives. External silence, in turn, fosters silence of the heart: it makes room in us for the Word of God and it makes room in us for joy.
Silence makes room for the Word. We see this clearly in the life of Saint Dominic. One early source document titled The Nine Ways of Prayer of Saint Dominic gives these beautiful details about his way of praying:
Sober and alert in his mind, and anointed with a spirit of devotion which he had drawn from the divine words which had been sung in choir or in the refectory, he would quickly go and sit down in some place by himself…to read or to pray, recollecting himself in himself and fixing himself in the presence of God. He would sit there quietly and open some book…then he would read, letting the sweetness of what he read touch his mind.
Like Saint Dominic, the nuns silently meditate on “the divine words” given to us throughout the day in the liturgy, spiritual reading, and study. From the moment we rise for Lauds and Mass to our last hour together at Compline, our hearts, if well-prepared, are being filled with this word. The divine truths once received are safeguarded through silence.
Silence also makes room in us for joy. Blessed Jordan of Saxony, successor to Saint Dominic, described our Holy Father this way: “The tranquil composure of the inner man was revealed outwardly by the kindliness and cheerfulness of his expression…By his cheerfulness, he easily won the love of everybody.”
How was Saint Dominic, man of silence, also the man of cheer loved by all? Christ himself reveals the answer: to abide in the love of Christ is to abide the love of the Father “that your joy may be made full” (cf. Jn 15:9-11). This gift of abiding—evinced by “the tranquil composure of the inner man”—made Saint Dominic the cheerful, lovable friar he was known to be.
For the nuns, too, fidelity to silence protects the joy of abiding with Christ. Again, it is our Constitutions that express the ideal here: “The purpose of all regular observance, especially enclosure and silence, is that the word of God may dwell abundantly in the monastery.”
With the word of God dwelling within each of us and dwelling abundantly in the monastery, how can we not brim over with joy? This is why even silent cloisters are places of smiles and why times of recreation resound with the joyful laughter.
St. Dominic, pray for us, your daughters, that we might embrace the gift of abiding joyfully in the silence of the Word.
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