AUDIO DIVINA
St. John of the Cross alerts us, “it is best to learn to silence the faculties and to cause them to be still, so that God may speak.”[1]
But in the 21st century, how is it possible to learn silence and be still when the world is so noisy? Lucy Winkert asks something similar: “We live in a noisy world. Has it ever before been this noisy?[2]”
Silence is one of the spiritual disciplines, and yet when we unpack the word, its impossibility is jarringly obvious. Is silence therefore like a carrot before a donkey, getting us to do more rather than letting us be? As I write this I am in my study; the clock ticks, the keys click as I type, the trucks thunder past on the way to the creamery, the crows and rooks chatter and there’s a hum of the smaller traffic going by. How can I come into the silence to encounter the divine with all this noise?
How can we achieve silence in this uproar?
Perhaps there is value in embracing the noise of the world and being still rather than trying to hide from it. Maybe it is because I am neurodiverse that have I felt environmental noise to be a barrier to stillness. For me there is noise everywhere. Others find silence where I hear noise.
However, my thoughts are not unique. Susanna Wesley, mother to John and Charles Wesley, would pray in the middle of a noisy household. She would sit down in her kitchen and throw her apron over her head for an hour, sometimes two. The noise of the household continued and the children were only told not to ask her anything, and she prayed.[3]
More than just creating space, is there something in being grateful for the noise. Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsy were imprisoned during World War II in Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. Corrie recounts her sister praying in thanksgiving for the fleas that infested the camp, which Corrie did not agree with. However, they were later spared an inspection because of the fleas. She was better able to be thankful for even something as gross as fleas.[4] Is there something to learn here? Can we learn to be thankful for the disruptions and less welcome aspects of life? Can we learn to be thankful for the noise?
Creating space and giving thanks for noise brings us to embracing the noise. How can we include sounds in our spiritually disciplined lives? Researcher Nóirín Ní Riain discovered that “complete silence is impossible to maintain; there is always some level of noise in our environment”[5]. John Cage, the composer, believed everything we do is music, which brought him to the place of composing 4’33”. This was a musical composition in four minutes and thirty-three seconds of non-musical sounds. In lay person’s terms, the pianist sits at the piano for the stated time without hitting a key. Therefore, each time the composition is performed the resultant configuration differs because the sound, or as Cage puts it, “the absence of intended sounds,” is different. Cage says, “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments.”[6]
Is there something in the shift from being disturbed by sounds to embracing noise that frees us to be still before the Lord? After all, the psalmist was not in the quietest place, he was in utter turmoil when the words “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) were first penned. The psalmist is declaring in the prayersong that in the middle of a chaos they can be still and come into the presence of God. There is no command here to be quiet, but to accept the commotion without adding to it – to be still.
In 2025 we cannot wait to find silence to approach the throne of God. The noises of urban life can help our intercessory prayer life. Imagine walking with prayer in the neighbourhood. The noises of those around us say so much - about job loss, health issues, infertility, abandonment, loneliness and all the different ways life takes a turn. As we pass parents struggling with a screaming child, or a teenager with hunched shoulders, earphones blaring, the older person shuffling and muttering, we can include them in our prayers if we pay attention to the sounds.
We cannot escape the noise of the world. If we limit ourselves in our prayer life to only praying when there is silence, we shall never pray at all. Moreover, we are missing out on the presence of God in the noise of the world. I have discovered the more that noise is embraced the greater the blessing. There is no training needed, just an openness to the praxis and the Godhead. People who attend silent retreats to encounter God have to be trained into the silence. A person can begin training themselves to attune to the noise, the presence of God is more apparent. Acclimating ourselves to ambient noise, recording 4’33” soundscapes to be played back later, engaging with the Godhead giving thanks like the Ten Booms or throwing an apron over our heads as Susanna Wesley to pray despite the noise adds no extra cost to our lives.
Would you like to join me in some praxis? Close your eyes and relax. What can you hear? Note all the sounds after one minute. Later today try again and see if you can hear more than the first practice. When the noticing has increased try this:
Praxis – The Invitation to Pause:
Take this time to be with the Lord, take as long as you want or need.
This is a precious moment for you.
Use as many or as few of the words below.
Breathe in – what are your expectations?
Breathe out – Is there excitement in the anticipation?
Will you let go of all the things you need to do today, the shopping list of to-do’s, the pick ups and drop offs, all the stuff and embrace the mystery of God for this time?
What can you hear? Children, animals, adults
Crying, talking, laughing
Traffic, birdsong, rainfall
Padam padam (heart beat)
Breathing in Breathing out
Those sounds, those noises…
Can you hear the divine in them?
What does the Lord want you to be in the middle of the noise?
I have been journalling the soundscape of my life for two years now and I hear much more than at first, although not as much as one could. Below is an example of a day when I stopped three times to listen to the ambient noise.
Figure 1: A page from my journal 26/3/2023 in Carlow, Ireland
There is always more to learn, to experience, to experiment and to notice when we are seeking the presence of the Lord. Utilising noise is one way we can hear from God in our everyday lives. Programmes, retreats and guided ‘anything’ tend to infer a cost. However, engaging with these nuanced hearing/ listening practices is equitable, it is open to all, seeker and believer and that whole strata of distinctives we hold; rich/poor, and Jew/Greek. All that is needed is an ear (or two) willing to listen to the world around them and be ready to encounter the presence of God[7].
[1] St John of the Cross, Book The Third: Which Treats Of The Purgation Of The Active Night Of The Me, https://ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/ascent/ascent.vi.iii.html
[2] Winkert, L. Our Sound is our Wound (Continuum Books, New York, 2010)
[3] J. Cunningham, “Susanna Wesley” in Excellent Women by Various (Salt Lake City: Project Gutenberg, c.1800) eBook https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10129 accessed 29/5/23
[4] Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherill and John Sherill, The Hiding Place, (Minneapolis: Chosen, 1971, 1984, 2006.) 263, 279 https://www.everand.com/read/235006600/The-Hiding-Place#__search-menu_738578 accessed 19/4/2023
[5] Nóirín Ní Riain, Theosony (Dublin: The Columba Press, 2011) 178
[6] John Cage, Silence: Lectures And Writings, (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1973) 3
[7] based on Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
