Our being is silent, but our existence is noisy. Our actions tend to be noisy but when they stop, there is a ground of silence which is always there. Our job as contemplatives is to be in contact with that ground and to communicate from that level. We have to keep silence alive for other people, as well as for ourselves because no one else is doing it. . . There is a supreme injustice in noisemaking. . .So our service to the world might simply be to keep a place where there is no noise, where people can be silent together. This is an immense service if only because it enables people to believe such a thing is still possible. Think of the despair of people who have given up all hope of ever having real silence where they can simply be alone quietly. . .People don’t want to hear any more words.

-Thomas Merton