Quiet What?

"All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while

each day in our room."

Blaise Pascal

1623-1662

For the first time in the 3 1/2 years we've lived in PA, a bear visited our backyard. It was a thrill to watch. Thankfully, both Abby and Jo were inside. It walked around for about 10 minutes. When it started climbing over the fence, Jerry opened the back door with a shout to hopefully send it away. Abby got out and chased it in the yard, and it jumped over the fence, running into the woods.

Quietism. Have you read about this movement before? In a devotion book of women in Christian history I read about Madame Jeanne Guyon, a French mystic, Wikipedia called her. She spearheaded a new movement that became know as Quietism. The definition: "getting quiet before God, praying silently, listening to him, and communing with him in the stillness."

It's the word mystical that threw me off about Guyon, but my dictionary defines it "as a person who seeks to obtain union with God by spiritual contemplation and self-surrender." That sounded okay.

"True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,

nourishment and refreshment."

William Pee

1644-1718

The writers of the devotion book shared: "Seeking spiritual direction from Father Francois Lacombe, she began to write and teach from her own experience of mystical union with God. Spearheading a new movement that became know as Quietism. Madame Guyon attracted both followers and opponents." Randy Petersen and Robin Shreeves


 Madam Jeanne Guyon was a French Catholic, born 1648-1717. The writers of the devotion book said: "The well-known Twenty-third Psalm says the Lord 'leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul.' In a way, that's what Madame Guyon has done for us. She herself was led by Francis de Sales, Father Lacombe, and others, and she led Fenelon, Cowper and Spurgeon, who all led countless others. We are a centuries-long procession of believers who lead each other beside the still waters of God's restoration."

 

"I cannot be the man I should be without times of quietness. Stillness is an essential part of our growing deeper as we grow older."

Charles R. Swindoll

1934 - 

I do like to be quiet. I am restored and refreshed in solitude. The confinement we all have found ourselves in hasn't made me uncomfortable. Introverts love being by themselves. If I had to be in a room with other people for two months, I would be going crazy.

I'm not sure of Guyon's Quietism Movement, but being quiet before God so you can hear His voice is an important part of our spiritual development. So slow down, get quiet and just listen for what God says to you!

"What a sweet delight a quiet life affords."

William Drummond of Hawthornden

1585-1649