By Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla

There are times when feelings are too deep, too special, too moving for words. Perhaps you have felt such closeness with another human being or maybe you experienced it alone in nature. Times like these call for silence so that we can perceive their full meaning, savor the sweetness and listen with an inner ear for the message inherent in the stillness. It is in the silence that we meet God.

Jesus left us specific instructions about this silence. He made quite an issue out of entering a secret place when you want to connect with God. Go into a place where there is only you—you and your God—and shut out all the clamor of outer things, including your own thoughts.

The secret place of silence that Jesus told us to enter is not just a quiet room in your house or a deserted strip of beach or anywhere else that you might go for solitude. It is more than that. It is an inner space, an internal and very personal place of total silence, which no one else can ever enter or disturb. It is that perfect, unchanging part of you which waits like a safe harbor, a friendly port, to welcome you in calm or storm, in peace or in distress. It is, in a sense, where
you “connect” with God.

A Time to Listen
What we are calling “the silence” (some call it meditation) is very important to your journey because it is here, in the silence, that you find your peace and your strength. Spending some time each day in the secret place of stillness may be the most rewarding thing you can do to further yourself. It will give you a chance to consolidate your gains, and it will enable you to cope more successfully with any dragons or demons which might happen to stray onto your path.

It's well and good to know about your spiritual nature—to talk about it and learn about it—but that in itself is not enough. The object is to experience your spirituality, to feel your oneness with the one God, to sense the comfort and the healing and, yes, the guidance which God offers you. However, all of this is impossible if you are too busy, too anxiety-ridden, too stressed, too noisy to listen. …

Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is just the opposite—it is listening to God. There is nothing mysterious about the process; anyone can do it. Your quiet times become an open door through which you walk into a broader light, a larger sense of yourself and your world. Things just automatically fall into better perspective after you sit still and listen.
 

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This excerpt appears in Unity's new free Advent booklet, Reclaiming Christmas: 26 Days to Spiritual Rebirth. The booklet is a guide, created from Unity's popular book The Quest: A Journey of Spiritual Rediscovery, featuring articles and journaling questions to guide your spiritual journey through the season. Join us on a quest to fully experience the true meaning of Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus and rekindle the faith, peace, love and joy that is characteristic of the Advent season. Click here, to download your free copy of this new booklet.

Visit our online bookstore to learn more about The Quest: A Journey of Spiritual Rediscovery.
 

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