Written by a Carthusian and preserved by Benedictines at a Roman Catacomb, They Speak by Silences is a treasure for those looking for spiritual reading. In fact, it might be deemed a 20th Century spiritual classic:
The Word proceeds from Silence, and we strive to find Him in his Source. This is because the Silence here in question is not a void or a negation but, on the contrary, Being at Its fullest and most fruitful plenitude. That is why It generates; and that is why we keep silent... Books are of more value for what they do not say than for what they do. The reader is like a man gazing on a horizon. Beyond the outlines that he sees, he seeks perpectives he barely discerns, but which draw him precisely because of the mystery he senses in them. So the books one loves are those which make one think. One seeks in them that silence whence the words were born, which is those depths of soul which no language can express, for they are beyond expression. It is here we touch what is measureless, eternal and divine in us. (They Speak by Silences, Herefordshire: Gracewing: 1955, 2006, pp 5-6)
The Word proceeds from Silence, and we strive to find Him in his Source. This is because the Silence here in question is not a void or a negation but, on the contrary, Being at Its fullest and most fruitful plenitude. That is why It generates; and that is why we keep silent... Books are of more value for what they do not say than for what they do. The reader is like a man gazing on a horizon. Beyond the outlines that he sees, he seeks perpectives he barely discerns, but which draw him precisely because of the mystery he senses in them. So the books one loves are those which make one think. One seeks in them that silence whence the words were born, which is those depths of soul which no language can express, for they are beyond expression. It is here we touch what is measureless, eternal and divine in us. (They Speak by Silences, Herefordshire: Gracewing: 1955, 2006, pp 5-6)
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