Finding God through the Twelve Levels of Silence

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips – Psalm 141:3

In modern times, when we’re not living in isolation, we usually are experiencing what some thinkers have called the dictatorship of noise. Even if we don’t live in an urban area, we often invite more noise into our lives through smart devices and entertainment. In order to hear and experience God more fully, we need healthy doses of silence and solitude. But how do we go about bringing more meaningful silence into our lives? A 19th-century contemplative nun may just have some answers for us…

In the 19th century, the French Carmelite Sister Marie‐Aimée de Jésus (who, incidentally, lived with Thérèse of Lisieux for several years!) wrote a whole book on silence. Her thesis is that we can all learn to live in the stillness of our hearts and enter into oneness with God. It used to be called the inner recollection. Perhaps now is the moment for you to start learning to live in that stillness (in order to find God and further understand His path for your life).

Below we will summarize the essential points of Sister Marie‐Aimée de Jésus. Overall, her main message is this: Only in the silence and in the prayer of the spirit can new life arise. Therefore, a soul that no longer loves stillness has lost love for the Eternal Purposes of God.

Silence, essentially, is the only bridge to inner union with God. Whoever wants to enter this intimacy, then, must descend the 12 stages of stillness into the depths of the soul (in order to ascend to God). Let’s now explore those stages:

Speak little with creatures, but much with GOD.
I have to keep stillness as I go about my daily life. In everyday life, in tongue, eye, and ear, I have to hold on to stillness. This prepares the soul so that it can immerse itself in GOD.
With this silence, I have already penetrated deeper and am in the process of freeing myself from other sources of interference – illusions and FANTASIES. It is important to still and balance the uncontrolled and unordered movements of emotions and meaningless but noisy impressions of the world.
In the next step, we look at what the ascetics of history most extolled: the stillness of MEMORY. The more self-centered, the more emotional I am, the more I have to work at it. The more I live in memories, the more important this is for me. The past must be still. Otherwise, the soul will never find itself.
The stillness of CREATURES: The soul must withdraw into the depths of its sanctuary, where the otherwise inaccessible majesty of the Holy of Holies lives.
Let your HEART become still. What do we mean by “heart”? When the senses are racing, when memory is stirring, there is always something that needs to be stilled. Namely, the vehement hammering of passions, the misguided and exaggerated zeal, mood swings, and purely human attachments. The stillness of the heart leads to the whole emotional life coming into order and finding a proper place.
Let the human and spiritual self-love of the soul rest. This stillness is the stillness of those content with their own lowliness.
The stillness of MIND: Quiet the useless, human, and even pleasurable thoughts. They harm the stillness of the mind. Stop looking for yourself and become still. Put your self-improvement attempts to rest, lest you interfere with God’s work.
The Silence of Judgment: Be very reserved with opinions and judgments.
Especially important and difficult is the stillness of the WILL: bring to rest the oppressions of the heart and every anguish of the soul. Even the stillness of the soul that has visited God and now feels left behind is fertile – it is a stillness that recognizes pain, but without lamentation.
Learn to be still with yourself: Forgetting yourself, allowing yourself to be alone – alone with God.
In stage one, God said to the soul: Talk little to creatures, but much to me. In the 12th stage, He says, “Now don’t speak to me any longer either.” Being still with God means: clinging to God, surrendering oneself to Him, leaving oneself behind, giving oneself to Him, worshiping Him, loving Him, listening to Him to rest in Him.

In this final stage, we start to understand the stillness of eternity, when the soul becomes one with God and rests in Him. This stillness then no longer comes from me. Rather, the soul lives in this stillness because God completely encloses it. This is the spirit of “taciturnité”—silence—that produces an entirely new creature, a new man, born of God.

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. – Psalm 139:4-6