Daniel 6:18: “Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were diversons brought before him: and his sleep went from him.”
The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the Abbey was that my IPhone and IPAD both had a flag saying: “No Service.” I was truly shut off from society. I entered a place with no radios, no television, no internet service (I did discover one room with internet) or anything that would distract you. I remember when I spent time in silence in the Catskills, I still had the internet and I had a link to the outside world. Here I have nothing. The last words I spoke were to Father Braddock who gave me the key to my room and blessed me. Before God I have now taken on a vow of silence for the duration of my stay at the Abbey. No words would pass my lips, no music would come from my IPAD, I will live in absolute silence before God. There would be no distractions
It is curious that in Daniel 6:19 we have the King of Persia who had been forced to sentence Daniel to the lions den go to his chamber where he was fasting and there was also something else, there were no diversions brought to him. One translation or paraphrase says there were no musical instruments played. He sought nothing that would distract him from his troubled mine. That word in the Aramaic (as the language this chapter is written in) for diversions is ‘alal which means to work, to do deeds, to create a distraction or to be entertained. The King of Persia went into his chambers and told his administrative assistant that he was taking no calls. Like me he went into silence. The Bible does not say it but I certainly assume it and I suppose I’m read into it but I believe he spent the night in silence praying to God Jehovah. He was cutting himself off from all distractions so he could just focus his attention on God and present his petition before Him. If he was troubled and anxious as Scripture indicates he was, then he should have made himself busy to distract himself and get his mind off of Daniel. Sitting alone in his room fretting about it would do no good and I just can’t believe that the mightiest king on the planet, a leader of men would waste his time fretting. There were many things going on that demanded his attention and as a king he would have not wasted his time. Thus, he must have been doing something more than just sitting on his bed fretting. There was no TV, no internet, no books even. The only thing he could do was just sit and worry and maybe pray to Daniel’s God. I know I am just guessing, but I suspect he knew about the Jewish practice of silence and he went into a period of silence before God with his petition for Daniel’s safety.
Well, I have been at the Abbey now for three hours and I am bored to death. I ran out things to pray about an hour ago and I am prayed out, there is nothing to do here except walk around the compound looking forward to lunch. I’ve been in silence before and I know it takes a little time to adjust and get your mind stayed on Him. I knew I had to get focused on my relationship with God. It is sort of like a first date, you are fishing around for a subject that you both are interested in and once you find it, the conversation takes care of itself.
When I was driving to the Abbey I was listening to some radio preacher talk about marriage and he said in all his years of marriage counseling and observing marriages he found that the most successful marriages always had their routines. The couple always had something that they enjoyed and did together. It might be a morning kiss or hug. They might read the Bible together in the morning or pray together. They might walk the dog together or just sit out on the porch together holding hands. But every successful marriage had their routines, things they always did together, that they both enjoyed and looked forward to doing. Many have a routine of having dinner together, sometimes both cooking the dinner together and then sitting down and enjoying it together. That little ritual, that little routine act is something both anticipate, look forward to, and causes them to watch the clock for that hour when they would do their little ritual together. You know ritual is not bad so long as you practice it as a special event of celebrating your love for God.
I drive a woman on my disability bus to mass a couple times a week. I asked her why she goes during the week as she is only obligated to attend once a week. I mean I see it on the church sign which says: Saturday evening Mass – fulfills Sunday obligation. She replied: “Oh, I don’t go under any obligation, I go because it is a time God and I get together, it is our little routine. Say what you want about Mass but I believe God takes great delight in celebrating the Mass with this little lady. The ceremony is just the act, it is the love and bonding between her and God that takes place. It is a little ritual performed out of love, like a husband writing his wife a silly little poem or story every day. To not have a poem or story ready one day would be a violation of something. The wife would be disappointed if she did not get her poem or story. Not that she needed a poem or silly story, but just her lover missed something that was routine that she had come to expect as his demonstration of love.
So here I am with a week of silence ahead of me and I have already exhausted my list of prayers. So I asked God if there is any routine He would enjoy. He led me to a tree I remember from my first visit, it was a white tree, almost totally white with practically no bark on it. It was not a Spruce tree which are white by nature. I never explored this tree on my first visit so I decided to check it out this time around. I noticed that the white appeared to be almost painted on. I know the brothers here practice various arts and sciences like astronomy and botany. I assume some brother is an amateur botanist and took a special liking to this tree. It may have been dying and losing its bark and as the bark is a special protection for a tree he substituted the bark for some other sort of protection.
I sensed the Lord was saying: “This is our routine, come to this tree every morning and we shall talk. I have many things to talk about and teach you from this great white tree.”
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