Making Time for Silent Prayer - Aug 9, 2026

A very good and very warm morning, brothers and sisters!

Today’s readings nicely align with the theme of finding God in silence.

In the first reading we have Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. He was the miracle-worker who called down fire from Heaven on Mt Carmel, defeating the false prophets and enraging Queen Jezebel. In this reading, he has fled Mt Carmel to hide in Mount Horeb, inside a cave. In that seclusion, God speaks to him: he should go outside as the Lord passes by. Next we hear that there is a great crashing wind, a mighty earthquake, and a burning fire… but God was not in any of these noisy phenomena. Finally, there comes a tiny whispering sound – the Hebrew is closer to ‘a silent, small sound’. Something so subtle – like [tiny breath.]. Elijah realizes that God is there, and he goes with covered face to speak with God. There is an important truth here, which many of the Church Fathers picked up on: we need silence in order to hear God. Our God is subtle; he speaks more often in silence than in earthquakes.

Our Gospel echoes a similar message. Jesus leaves the crowd and his disciples, and goes up a mountain to pray by himself.  We see multiple instances of this: when Jesus withdraws by himself to a secluded place to pray- whether for a full 40 day retreat or for an overnight vigil. By contrast, the disciples are still anxious with the things of the world- in this today, they are in the boat getting smashed by winds and waves.  Only when Jesus approaches can they lift their heads up – and at Jesus’ encouragement Peter steps out of the boat to walk towards Jesus.  But as soon as Peter sees how strong the winds are – as soon as he takes his eyes off of Jesus - he begins to sink.

Brothers and sisters, our readings therefore have two messages: first, we should be ready to withdraw from the world and its distractions for silent prayer, like Elijah and Jesus did. Second, when we pray, we should fix our eyes on Jesus.

The spiritual masters tell us the absolute necessity of silent prayer. They often emphasize that we all must carve out the time.

St Francis de Sales, who wrote a book for ordinary laypeople, is quoted as saying: "Every one needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy—then we need an hour."  An hour of dedicated time for prayer. A holy hour.

I’ll be the first to admit that at this stage of my life, I absolutely am not doing a holy hour every day. But could I do once a week, or at least once a month? Or just 10 minutes every day? Or a day or half-day every year, set aside for a mini-retreat.

Even in the secular corporate world, there's an increasing awareness of the importance of taking the time for 'mindfulness exercises' and meditation. This is similar, except we are focusing ourselves on the God who is Love, rather than simply on our breathing.

The spiritual masters tell us that we simply HAVE to carve out the time. We can’t just save it to the last minutes of the day, as we’re falling asleep - that’s not giving God our best.

We put on our schedule and set reminders for what is important to us- I know I’d never miss a one-on-one meeting with my boss –so why can’t I schedule time for silent prayer with the same tenacity?

I hear the words of Christ, “Peter, could you not keep watch with me for one hour?”

Ok, so this is the first point- that we simply need to make the time, we need to carve it out.

Our readings suggest a second point: that we need to silence distractions so that we can focus on Jesus. Time in prayer isn’t going to be very fruitful if we have our smartphone or computer right in front of us, pinging when every text message and email comes in– this is like Peter looking at the waves rather than the face of Christ.

So ideally we go into a quiet church, or perhaps there’s a place in our home that we’ve set up with some sacred artwork like a prayer corner, or maybe it’s just a quiet office or bedroom.

Even with our phone off and put away, our brain will still hit us with a hundred distracting pings: ‘what am I going to have for dinner?’ or ‘what am I going to do this weekend?’ or on and on.

We should let these distractions gently wash over us, like the waves went over Peter’s feet, and calmly turn back to the face of Christ.

I think about the many times my wife and I are trying to have a conversation, and there’s a loud interruption – ok, we let it pass, then we try to turn back to each other and pick up where we left off.

St Teresa of Avila, the famous Carmelite nun, once wrote [quote]

“ Prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking the time to be alone with [the one…] who loves us”.

It’s like the old couple who can sit beside each other for an hour or more near the fireplace- no word need be spoken, but their hearts are ever more being knitted together in loving union.

Or to return to St Frances de Sales: he compared prayer to sitting silently beside a grand king. We don’t need to be constantly talking, we can simply be present – St Frances calls this ‘simple attention’. Rather than try to fabricate some spiritual experience, we can simply say, ‘Lord, here I am’… and when our mind wanders, again to say, ‘Lord, here I am.’

We shouldn’t seek any special revelations in prayer: it’s only once in a million that we’ll experience a spiritual earthquake, or whirlwind, or forest fire. Prayer is not about us, it’s not about trying to have a vision or feel a warm fuzzy.

Elijah heard only a ‘small, silent sound’; it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll hear an actual voice. But there might be little inspirations or thoughts that come to our head or heart: like remembering that we should forgive someone or ask for forgiveness from someone, or realizing a solution to a dilemma. But often it’s just realizing again and more deeply God’s love for us.

The spiritual masters have given many tips on how we can keep ourselves focused in prayer. We can list a few: there’s the Jesus prayer – Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner – which we can repeat again and again. There’s the rosary, which focuses on the events in Jesus and Mary’s life. There’s Scriptural reading, especially using Lectio divina, when you slow down when a particular passage hits you. Or there’s simply focusing on the face of Christ in a piece of artwork, like a crucifix or image we might have. If you don’t have an image, you can order one or print one off.

But most importantly, we need to take the time.

I’ll close with an example of someone taking the time – and how this helped to make a saint.

Today is the feast day of St Edith Stein, a great spiritual master and a martyr in Auschwitz. She was born into a Jewish family but became an atheist as a youth… before eventually having an encounter that led to her conversion. Integral to her spiritual journey was the work of St Teresa of Avila, who wrote so eloquently about silent prayer. St Teresa was a Carmelite, and Edith Stein became a Carmelite. Recall that it was on Mt Carmel that Elijah had called down fire from Heaven, and it was this same mountain in the Holy Land where the first Carmelites gathered in the 13^th century to focus on contemplative prayer. So Edith Stein – who took the name Teresa – became a nun, and she lived as a Carmelite for several years, until she was captured by the Nazis and killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. She was canonized a saint in 1998, thanks to a miracle that occurred in our own Mass General Hospital… a little girl in Brockton (named Teresia Benedicta, after then blessed Edith Stein) was on death's door from fulminant liver failure from accidental Tylenol ingestion, but her family prayed for Edith Stein's heavenly intercession, and she made a full recovery and walked out of the hospital holding a balloon. It was a remarkable miracle, and I’ve interviewed the GI physician at MGH (who is not Christian) who testified at the Vatican about it.

But almost more remarkable was the small happenstance that led to Edith Stein’s conversion. It was no miracle, no big earthquake or avalanche. Instead, it was a moment of silent prayer. When the young Edith Stein was still an atheist, she was visiting Frankfurt and touring the cathedral. While there, she noticed a woman come in holding her shopping basket… the woman set down her basket and then knelt silently in the pew to pray. It was this moment of silent prayer, of interrupting a busy day for a few moments of quiet conversation with God, that rocked Edith Stein’s world … eventually she read Teresa of Avila’s book and became a Catholic and one of the Church’s greatest intellectuals.

Brothers and sisters – let’s all re-dedicate ourselves to carve out the time to pray, to set down our shopping basket to enter a church or a quiet room to pray, to focus our gaze on Christ. Who knows what good it may do – not just in our own lives, but in the lives of those around us.

Amen.