The Field Marshal

From Silence to Peace The fruit of silence is prayer The fruit of prayer is faith The fruit of faith is love The fruit of love is service The fruit of service is peace I read this 'poem' in the book "Mother Teresa - A Simple Path". Can't really share much of what's written in the book since I have just read less than a quarter of it. But I have to admit the simple poem above touched me deeply. Being a person deeply rooted in today's materialism and complexity, I am not a person who's easily touched by words in a book. Mydaemon can attest to this since she's always puzzled why I am such a blockhead when it comes to issues regarding the wisdom to life etc. All my friends know me for the boisterous and happy-go-lucky guy that I am. Silence is seldom equated with any environment that I am in. For many a years, I lived a life of gaiety and 'noise-filled' life. Noise here is not negative in any sense of the word. Instead, the noise in my life included having long chats with friends, cracking jokes with them, music (as in KTV sessions, where I tend to be the listener rather than the singer) and movies (especially those with great special and loud sound effects). For me, this din was a comfortable part of me. In reality, I hated silence. Silence is something which I absolutely abhor. Absolute silence to me is something I sense so strongly that sometimes it's physical. Thus, I always made sure that prolonged silence is punctuated with a comment etc. This is also a reason why Mydaemon feel that I make the most inane of comments and statements. Apart from this, Mydaemon has this knack of understanding the real me. Time and again, she questioned this lack of stillness and stability in my life. For her, this is one part of me that has held me back from developing into the man that I could be. I have always listened to her, but never truly hearing the message she had for me. At the logical level, I understood perfectly what she's trying to tell me. But I have always rebutted that the need for communication is a part of me and that silence just doesn't sit well with me temperament - read my description above. However, at a deeper level, I always felt that there's some truth to it. Perhaps it's a part of growing up. But increasingly, I am starting to be a little more contemplative and reflective in my thoughts. I am sure Mydaemon has been the most influential factor in this change in me. While I have read quite a few inspirational books, I have never been touched so deeply by the few lines that I have written at the start of this post. I sense this simple beauty and truth in the way that the short poem tries to communicate its message to us. At the first reading, I thought it was a nice way of putting down words in showing how prayer, love and peace are all tied together. Not giving it much attention, I moved on to the other pages of the book. But before I know it, I was flipping back the pages to look for this poem. I can't explain why there was this urge to find it, but it 'called' out to me. When I found it, I read it again, and before I knew it, it was etched into my memory. At that point of time, I sensed the truth behind silence and prayer. The truth is that in this day and age, our mind is always preoccupied with the various tasks in our hectic lives. We are always thinking of where we are going, what we are going to do next, etc. In our free time, we are occupied with music, TV or other activities. Thus, having a quiet, or silent, moment is near impossible. It is especially more difficult for people like me, for I like to surround myself with activities or noise. This I believe is that reason why I have not be able to hear God for such a long time. Don't get me wrong, I don't hear God in an audible manner. But I sense, or 'hear', Him in the silence of prayer. I know that He's listening when I pray. Praying is something which I try to do each night. It's a struggle as I often doze off before finish reciting the Hail Mary. Most of the time, I feel a deep sense of peace and a lightening of the spirit after talking to God. It is indeed a wonderful feeling. It is indeed true that prayers offered in the silence of the mind and spirit are the ones that God can hear the most clearly. For these are not distorted by the restless mind and spirit. For those who are interested in reading the book, its call number at the NLB is 271.97 MOT. Got the book at the Choa Chu Kang Community Library. Btw, the cover of the book is different from the one I have posted here. But this is the best I can find on the net. I am sure you will be touched in some way by this book. Happy reading.