Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You ask for silent requests, yet the greatest thanks is not silent but declared aloud, for he who confesses gratitude to God for what he suffers will not seek revenge or harbor bitterness. Silent petitions must be examined: do they hide a heart unwilling to be cleansed? For we are temples of the living God, and He walks within us only when we cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, not for show but in earnest devotion.
Consider Abraham, who staggered not at the promises of God though they were beyond all nature’s hope. He gave glory to God by trusting the matter to faith, not to reasonings. So too your silent requests: if they are borne of faith, they require great strength, not idle wishing. But if they are vague desires unshaped by submission to God’s will, they remain barren. God wills not the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live. He speaks even in parables to stir the sluggish soul.
Let your silence speak only of reverence, not of timidity or concealment. Bring thanks for what has been given: the breath in your lungs, the soul He breathed into clay alone, the crown of honor with which He adorned our nature. From such gratitude springs the grace by which we serve acceptably. For we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, and our God is a consuming fire. Offer Him, then, not muted murmurs but a heart cleansed in fear and love, that your unspoken petitions may ascend as incense from a holy temple, not from a house shared with idols.
Consider Abraham, who staggered not at the promises of God though they were beyond all nature’s hope. He gave glory to God by trusting the matter to faith, not to reasonings. So too your silent requests: if they are borne of faith, they require great strength, not idle wishing. But if they are vague desires unshaped by submission to God’s will, they remain barren. God wills not the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live. He speaks even in parables to stir the sluggish soul.
Let your silence speak only of reverence, not of timidity or concealment. Bring thanks for what has been given: the breath in your lungs, the soul He breathed into clay alone, the crown of honor with which He adorned our nature. From such gratitude springs the grace by which we serve acceptably. For we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, and our God is a consuming fire. Offer Him, then, not muted murmurs but a heart cleansed in fear and love, that your unspoken petitions may ascend as incense from a holy temple, not from a house shared with idols.
