"In the ground of our being is an unassailable union with God...  For so many of us, however—even those professing a Christian faith—the transforming, experiential reality of this truth is rarely available for reflection. … Our interior 'noise and chatter' delude us into thinking we are separated from God.  Only awareness will cleanse our 'doors of perception,' enabling us thereby to see infinity in all that is.  The practice of contemplation is a time-honored means of developing the awareness which accesses the still and silent depths within.  The silence to which contemplative prayer exposes us is not merely the absence of sound.  Silence is a portal through which we touch the depths of reality." 

-- Meredith Secomb, Being Attentive to Silence