The Nine S': Stillness

Stillness is defined as a deep silence or calm.  It actually has various uses and definitions, all reflecting a fixed position, undisturbed by wind, sound or current.  Why is stillness not the same as our S' of silence and stability?  It has to do with degree, the depth.  And, as in all the S', we consider the interior and the exterior.  

There may be stillness of the body and voice as well as stillness of the soul.  If we attend to the stilling of our souls, the exterior will be like an unstirred pool of water or a motionless leaf.  The interior may be like the night desert sky.  We may still from outer to within, moving through rings of the senses, emotions, imagination, memory and understanding, to intellect and will in the heart of the soul.

St. Hesychios the Priest shares the following.  The intellect's great gain from stillness is this:  all the sins that formerly beat upon the intellect as thoughts and which, once admitted by the mind, were turned into outward acts of sin, are now cut off by mental watchfulness.  For, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, this watchfulness does not allow these sins to enter our inner self and so to burgeon into outer acts of evil.

We may go to the interior, to the intellect and will first, and be watchful.  Or we may enter from the outer, the exterior, working our way through stilling the senses, emotions, and so forth.  For those who are able to focus, to enter into the inner, to be watchful of the intellect's thoughts and thus to strengthen the will in purity, all the better.  The stillness will ripple outward, from the center of the soul to the exterior, calming the memory and understanding, imagination, emotions, and senses.

This stillness of soul redounds to the depth of stillness and calm of the Most Holy Trinity.  This stillness of soul washes from the inner to outer like gentle, lapping waves upon the shore of our existence.  It is essential to call upon Christ all the more to receive the standard of formation: stillness.  

Remaining in His love, we learn to be still, and are stilled by His love, in every present moment.  Stillness is the funnel from the inner depths to the outer realms in which we remain unruffled by situational storms.

Be still and know that I am God, sings the Psalmist.