Finding Your Hidden Treasure: The Way of Silent Prayer

by Benignus O'Rourke, Martin Laird (Foreword)

The most important journey in life is the journey inward--to the depths of our own being. It is a journey we are all invited to make. It takes us beyond words and images into silence. The silence allows the restless mind to become still and in the stillness we enter a new world. We return to our hearts. Here we find our true selves. We discover an ancient way of finding God that has almost become lost. Slowly, we realize that we are in union with the source of life and love itself. Our whole life changes. Our goal now is to take God's love to others in our everyday lives.

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Paperback

Genres: Spirituality, Prayer, Theology, Religion, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2010

Reviews

[Rich Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benignus begins his book,”I too regret that it took me so many years to find the gold of silent prayer.  In the chapters that follow I shall try to share what, with the help of my teachers, I have found at the heart of silence.”  Let me share the gold that I found within this short but powerful book.

Augustine of Hippo
“Augustine constantly calls us to return to our hearts and it is about this journey inward that I want to write.”  Let me share some Augustine of Hippo golden nuggets that Benignus sprinkles throughout his delightful book.

How much treasure we have within us but we do not dig for it!
You made us so that we long for you, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Augustine teaches us:  ‘Do not wish to ask anything of God except God.  Love Him without seeking gain.  Desire Him alone.’
Christ lives in the heart of each one of us, and he is our best teacher,…
God sees so much more good in us than we see in ourselves

More Gold Nuggets
Allow me to share a few more gold nuggets that I enjoyed.  I think you will too!

Radiate Power
“The power that Jesus radiated was renewed daily in prayer.”  This is key!  We too can radiate power.  How?  When we do what Jesus did.  When we take time each day to sit with God, over time we will be amazed at the power that will radiate from us.  We will discover qualities within us that remained hidden but now seem to burst forth into the world.  We will begin to operate from a new base that we did not realize we had.  Within this base is all that we need:  wisdom, compassion, empathy, patience and inner peace.  This base will also include selfless and inclusive acts.  When we see an injustice we will feel more inclined to take a stance.

Learn How To Love
Silent prayer teaches us how to love.  “We shall find a new way of seeing and then a new way of loving.  Of loving ourselves, and others, and God.”  Many people expend all of their energy loving others.  Silent prayer teaches us how to balance our love.  We learn how to love God.  We sit in silence because we love God.  Silent prayer also teaches us how to love ourselves.  This is not selfish.  The more we can learn to love ourselves, the more we can love God and others.  We need the balance of all three!

Rest
“Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest,” says Jesus.  “How easy it is for us to miss that invitation.“  It is wonderful to know that we have a God that we can come to when we are weary.  Jesus loves us!  Jesus wants us to come to him with our burdens.  Silent prayer is a safe place where we can sit with Jesus and release our burdens to him and take a much needed rest.  And best of all, this time of rest is always available.

Refill Your Reservoir
“To live the new life that is offered us is to draw our energy from the source of life within us.  As we have seen, too often we draw our energy from outside.”  I begin each day with a centering prayer sit.  Centering prayer fills my tank.  As the day progresses, I begin to run on fumes.  I stop what I do and I sit a second time with God.  I often sit a third time too.  These second and third sits refill my reservoir.  “We run on empty tanks.  It is to fill our empty vessels that we come before the Lord in silence.”

Be Present
“One way we can tell that we are being transformed is if other people find us more available, more attentive.”  I have noticed this with a few of my friends and even those I do not know as well.  I do not say this to brag.  I say this to emphasize that silent prayer teaches me how to love others.  When I love others, I am present to others and they can sense this. They become more open and will talk and share with me.  They can sense that I love them and that I want them to feel comfortable to get things off their shoulders that they have carried for too long.

Next Steps
Let me conclude and remind you that there are many ways to begin this journey.  My way is a daily practice of centering prayer.  There are many, many other ways too, Christian Meditation, Prayer Labyrinths, Contemplative Photography to name a few.  “There are many ways of beginning the inward journey to our own hearts.  We shall each find the way that suits us best.”  As we begin this journey a God who loves us more than we can imagine awaits.  Meister Eckhart reminds us, “He longs for you a thousand times more than you long for him.”

Rich Lewis
www.SilenceTeaches.com

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book for my silent retreat. I’ll use this for years to come.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful! A book I have read but will never consider finished. I want to keep going back to it.

[Paul Dubuc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to contemplative prayer for Christians; a good place to start. It's a good description of the blessings and benefits of this mode of prayer, essential to spiritual growth and communion with God. That aside, I think it lacks some of the balance that is important to understand for anyone who commits to this practice. It's not difficult, but it does take some persistence and patience. It offers tremendous blessings, but some of them come in other forms than the ones described. God's love is expressed in different ways for our benefit. Sometimes we're offered insights into our sins and short comings, or a revealing our resistance to God's intentions in a certain area. The thing to remember is that this is all done in the context of God's overwhelming love for us. We have to determine to "let God be God" and not filter our experience with Him through our own desires. I think that if we intend to practice contemplative prayer thinking that it will always be a blissful experience, we may become discouraged and miss some of the real blessings of God.

[Jordan Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning. Just a deep exhale for the soul.

[Joolsbk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gift indeed

This book is a beautiful gift about silence, stillness and love. I have read quite a lot about silence as prayer, however this book goes beyond being a reminder of how important that is. It brings us back to Gods love and our loving actions arising out of our silence. I wasn’t familiar with the writings of Augustine and found it a gentle way into his writings as it weaves with scripture throughout the book.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think silent prayer is important and have enjoyed it for years. However, I found this book strange because it looks down on other forms of prayer. As Catholics, we pray the mass, rosary, novenas, with icons, all sorts of ways and to say silent prayer is the best and true way, belittling being penitent or asking God for things, is limiting of the human experience and even the relationship one has with God. I also think this book lacked resources for anyone starting silent prayer/meditation besides saying it’s so good and just do it, new practitioners would benefit from practical advice.

[Trey Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A generous, simple-in-the-best-way, little orientation to silent (mostly wordless) prayer that will be especially helpful for those getting started with a contemplative practice and/or for those whose previous understandings of God have been harmful, anxious about judgement, overly focussed on the need of the individual to fix a problem. A lovely, accessible introduction to daily conscious contact with the God of deep love who is already closer to everyone than their own breath.

[Ruth Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally amazing reflection on the role of silence in Augustinian spirituality.

[Rowena Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

silent prayer to see, love and praise

Short reflection on the journey into silence and recognising love as core to our being enabling us to listen, love and praise in reponse

[Rodie King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now chapter 19 St Augustine wrote For Christians who fear they are drowning in the world's business the worst thing they can do is panic.
There can be no question of escape from the situation;
We are many miles from land and there is no help near.
the one thing we can do is to withdraw, as it were,
into ourselves,to find the Christ within,
who is as Powerful to still the inner tempest
as He was to subdue the waves on the lake of Galilee.
I will continue to use this book have just completed an article for my church magazine following a quiet day held at Clare Priory which is where I purchased this book.

[Stefan Grieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful book, carefully and economically written, to which I have read in a time which this book would be much useful for me.
Can be read by a variety of people since the prose and theology is quite simple, yet the deeper spiritual understanding may be a bit more advanced.
I enjoyed this book.
It is clear that this book had been written from wise experience, love and care.