The Value of Silence

Fr. Thomas Keating says something to the effect that centering prayer is a means of evacuating the psyche just as the intestines are the means of evacuating the body. In practicing centering prayer, we enter into silence so that we can begin to listen. It is my experience at that point the evacuation of the psyche begins.

My daughter suggests this is no "pretty picture" of silence and that I should find another way to describe this form of prayer to others. She's right about the nature of the picture that can follow upon the silence; it isn't always a pretty picture. There can be much in our psyches that is ugly, painful, or difficult to face. But the alternative is even less of a "pretty picture" because the longer we keep the mess locked up deep inside us the more messy it gets. But when the silence comes, then we can process the mess and see more clearly the path that leads deeper into the Holy.