Silence...

Whatever one may think of the value of communal celebration with all kinds of song and self-expression - and these certainly have their place - the kind of prayer we here speak of as properly 'monastic' (though it may also fit into the life of any lay person who is attracted to it) is a prayer of silence, simplicity, contemplative and meditative unity, a deep personal integration in an attentive, watchful listening of 'the heart.' The response such prayer calls forth is not usually one of jubilation or audible witness: it is a wordless and total surrender of the heart of silence.

Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer pp. 29-30, with thanks to louie, louie

It has taken me a long time, perhaps, to come to understand that this is so utterly true of me, coloured as my own self-perception has been with self-doubt, distrust perhaps of my own insight. I guess that it must be from God, since this admission has only come about since this Easter brought some kind of surrender, some occupying of a new, thin place of awareness of my complete dependence on Christ.