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Front page of February's Newsletter

The Great Silence

by the Rev. Tom Pivinski, Assisting Priest

Lent has arrived and once again we are given the opportunity to ask ourselves: Am I living within the framework of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy? The spiritual works are aimed toward caring for my neighbor’s soul. Traditionally, they include: Convert the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive injuries, and pray for the living and the dead. The corporal works of mercy are aimed at the body and rooted in Matthew 25: Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit those in prison, bury the dead.

Lent is also a time for soul-searching and metanoia—literally, turning again toward God—and for reviewing our life. When Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, he was re-enacting the trauma of his people’s slavery in Egypt and their release from captivity. He wants to find out where his people went wrong. Why didn’t they achieve the full liberation God intended for them?

In that great desert silence, Jesus allows himself to be “revictimized” in order to remember, assimilate, integrate, and heal the trauma his people have suffered in the past. In this way, he begins to understand what is needed for them to be born again in freedom and truth—and what his particular role will be in that liberation.

Monastic communities still practice the Great Silence—where talking ceases and all media is unplugged—every evening, usually from 9 p.m. until morning prayer at 7 a.m. Most of us live in an extreme poverty of silence. There is noise all around us no matter where we are - at home, at work, in the car. Perhaps this Lent could be a good time to enter into the rich great silence in our own lives. Can you imagine turning off the TV or the PC or the iPod at 9PM? If you can, you might also begin to hear what Jesus heard in the desert...the voice of God in your own heart.

Join our urban community at Trinity this Lent and together let us walk these 40 days listening in the great silence in which the Spirit speaks to our hearts individually and as a community.