One thing which media reports on the current wars brings home to you is the sheer noise of war. It’s bad enough hearing it over the TV. 

What must it be like for those in the midst of it! In another context, I’m sure you’ve noticed, too, how, nowadays, there always seems to be loud music blaring in shops, restaurants, pubs and other public places.

Even many homes have loud TV booming all day – and night! It comes as no surprise, then, when the occasional visitor to an empty church remarks “what peace” they have experienced after a few minutes’ silence.

Silence can be a refuge from the din of life. It can bring relief from the anxieties of busyness. It can be restorative and healing, bringing about a sense of peace and wholeness.

I say that silence “can” bring about these things. But it won’t automatically do so. For, as we all experience, there can be as much noise going on inside our heads and hearts as in the war, the pub or on the TV.

Like swirling winds and clouds on a mountain top, thoughts and impulses, fears and anxieties, needs and yearnings can whip up a veritable storm inside us.

Sometimes, we are probably glad of the external din to escape from the inner racket. The problem with that, of course, is that we then end up with hubbub in stereo!

We don’t give ourselves a chance. To attain inner silence I need to remember, first, that there is more to me than the noise within: I am not my inner noise.

Beneath the noise, as the mountain beneath the howling winds, there is my true self, my deepest heart, my deepest soul. It remains solid, firm and stable. I take my stand there, not on the churning clouds.

I direct my mind, my attention, quietly, perseveringly, relentlessly, towards the silent depths within, far beyond my weaknesses, psychological problems or sins. I enter my sanctuary.

For those who seek God or already believe in him, it is in those deep roots of my own being that I encounter him, eternally present, welcoming, loving, healing.

For those who do not believe in him, I discover that it is within my own self that there lies the secret of my own peace – even should the noise of war, of life or of my anxious restlessness be raging around me.