When the silence of worship is first experienced, the reasoning mind does not find rest and feelings are agitated and confused in the absence of a special method of self-control. A crowd of words appear haphazardly on the screen of the imagination, and only you see and hear them as though you were looking at TV. Ususally you don't like them; they sound empty or even false.
However, just because you are silent and not called on to speak, you realise that it is not good to pronounce and expound these words, and so they are not thoughtlessly put into circulation. Each word should totally adhere to inner truth: a smile to joy and sympathy, a kiss to tenderness and love, tears to grief and pity. Little by little you free yourself, even if you have the gift of fluency, from the overflowing flood of useless words, be they misleading, demagogic, self-serving, high-sounding, complacent - all lies. You let them fall like dead leaves and relax psychologically and wait for the void to be filled with words from God.
Only when and if you have heard such words, may you clearly feel the urge to communicate them to those who are meditating with you. But in the absence of such a clear impulse, it is just as creative not to communicate them orally and to ponder them in your heart and fully live them.
Furthermore, it is entirely possible to communicate in a full and deep way with all fellow worshippers without words or gestures. Thoughts and feelings are transmitted on the level of consciousness and others can be known to receive and exchange them.
Livorno, 1 XII 1985
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