You’re right. It is extremely difficult for me to wait silently on the Lord. I am comforted by the fact that even St Teresa of Avila had a hard time somtimes.
Any tips on how to battle distraction?
As uselessbeggar said, practice.
I refrain from coffee and large meals before adoration, or in the hours leading up to times when I think I will be praying much. That’s just my cross to bear.
Silence is uncomfortable for many, especially children who are brought up with iPods in their ears and DVD players in minvans. Sitting still is uncomfortable. I sometimes think of Forest Gump sitting on the bench - just sitting there, sitting still.
I said, "I will watch my ways,
lest I sin with my tongue;
I will put a curb on my mouth."
(Psalm 39)
I have been practicing stillness and silence for some time, when I can. It is something one of the monks told me to do and something I read about it in the books on Cistercian spirituality. On line in the crowded bagel shop or the grocery store is a good time to practice - don’t look around, don’t look at the glaring TV in the deli or the people. Just stand still, and look at one thing - like the floor. Don’t fidget with your phone. Take one step forward, slowly, deliberately, as the line moves and then stand still again. It may sound silly but I sometime practice moving like I do when I altar serve, slowly, deliberately, and without drawing attention to myself - liturgically. On the train, waiting at the doctor’s office, etc. are all opportunities for practicing stillness, silence and patience.
Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the best of intentions a spiritual man finds himself exhausted and deadened and debased by the constant noise of machines and loudspeakers, the dead air and the glaring lights of offices and shops, the everlasting suggestions of advertising and propaganda. The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from the spirit into the wilderness of neurosis. Even our monasteries are not free from the smell and clatter of our world.
(No Man is an Island, Thomas Merton)
The only solution is to create an inner monastery. A place of stillness in our own interior. It takes practice.
There is also an inner stillness and silence of the will - best described as a lack of restlessness in one’s life. The desire to move to a new home, change jobs, the latest fasion, a new car, or just “Change things up” for the sake of change, that’s restlessness. I struggle some here.
One of the three monastic vows is stability. I asked the vocations director at the monastery about poverty, chastity and obedience and he said, “Bah! You’ve been watching too many movies.” He said that Benedictine and Cistercian monks vow
obedience,
ongoing conversion, and
stability. I asked what was meant by stability. He replied by extending his hands to bring my attention to the surroundings - the abbey church and grounds of the monastery - and said, “I’m going to die here.” It was for me a radical statement. They are not restless, not always looking around for something new or different.
Brother told me a story. He said that when he first came to the monastery, he saw an older monk one morning and said, “Hello Brother. How are you?” and the older monk replied, “The same.”
There are a zillion little opportunities to make an interior monastery, and to practice stillness and silence throughout our day. I think if we are not drawing attention to ourselves we are probably doing it right. Mostly - for me - it is something that has to be learned and practiced.
*
Mary, teacher of the sacrifice that is hidden and silent! See her, nearly always in the background, co-operating with her Son; she knows, yet says nothing.
- The Way 509, St. Josemaria Escriva*
-Tim-
My stomach gurgles and I get sleepy after eating large meals. I can’t pray that way. Coffee makes me jittery and loose concentration, gets me all scatter brained. I can’t pray on a full stomach.