大象传媒

Good morning.聽 鈥淲herever we are, what we hear is mostly noise,鈥� said the late American composer, John Cage, who was born on this day in 1912.聽 鈥淲hen we ignore it, it disturbs us.聽 When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.鈥�

In his early works, Cage pursued this fascination by writing for an array of percussion instruments.聽 But he became increasingly interested in the antithesis of noise 鈥� silence.聽 In his famous Four minutes, thirty three seconds, the performers are instructed to make no intentional sounds, sitting in silence to allow the audience to absorb the ambient sounds around them, each hearing the music in a different way.聽聽

I spent the summer in Cairo, one of the noisiest cities I鈥檝e ever known.聽聽 The constant roar of traffic and sounding of horns, music blaring from boats on the Nile, the resounding calls to prayer 鈥β� it was only by retreating into the desert that I found any kind of stillness.
In the Bible, it鈥檚 often in the quiet moments that God speaks.聽 Not in the earthquake or the fire did Moses encounter God, but in the still small voice.聽 Jesus withdrew to a quiet place to pray, to renew his strength.聽 Yet perhaps it鈥檚 not the external noise which hinders our communing with God 鈥� after all, if God is present in the world, then that鈥檚 right in the midst of our 21st century din.聽 But the internal noise of our anxieties and ambitions, our fears, our frustrations, our anger, can be overwhelming.聽 May they be silenced, in order to hear God鈥檚 voice.

Dear God, speak gently in my silence. When the loud outer noises of my surroundings, and the loud inner noises of my fears keep pulling me away from you, help me to trust that you are still there, even when I am unable to hear you.聽 Amen.聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽 (Henri J.M. Nouwen)