Hear Our Silence

What is prayer? How may we approach our Maker in a simple, direct way? In listening to the Silence within. For if once we begin to attend to our deeper Self then we begin that most enriching encounter: to see Self enclosed within our Maker. Julian of Norwich tells us: 'God is nearer to us than our own Soul'. Educated by the Jesuits from the age of nine, John Skinner left school to join the Society of Jesus. For thirteen years he followed their formation, especially the Ignatian method of prayer. But ahead of ordination, he changed course to join The Times. Five years on Fleet Street left him breathless, so that he became a children's bookseller to found The Red House. Returning to his former trail twenty years on, he managed to spend a bare fortnight living, praying and working alongside the Carthusians of Parkminster. His narrative of that healing time, Hear our Silence, tells that tale; it also led to an invitation to those outside the cloister to deepen their own experience of prayer. 'I told the Prior: I am going to steal your Silence, and take it outside.' 'His answer: use our name.' What better invitation... For a brief period one summer, John Skinner lived with the English Carthusians at Parkminster. He worked, ate and prayed with this unique community of hermit monks whose unchanged tradition of prayer goes back 900 years. Waking at midnight and joining them in the church for three hours of prayer at Matins; attending the morning Eucharist, much of it prayed in drenching silence; working in the kitchen; digging with them in the kitchen gardens. It became a healing experience which led to an extraordinary outcome.