Silence

We are silent
early in the morning
because God should have the first word,
and we are silent before going to bed
because the last word also belongs to God.

In the end,
silence means nothing other than waiting
for God's Word
and coming from God's Word
with a blessing.

Real silence,
real stillness,
really holding one's tongue,
comes only as the sober consequence of
spiritual silence.

There is a wonderful
power in being silent
--the power of clarification, purification,
and the focus on what is essential.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Meditation and Prayer, ed. Peter Frick