Thich Nhat Hanh visited Copley Square in Boston.  Thousands of people came to be in the presence of the great Zen Buddhist monk.  They gathered, they sat down, they expectantly waited, and for 25 minutes there was as close to sheer silence as an urban center could be.

I love this idea of silence as an event.  Let’s hurry to Copley Square so we can be quiet!  Do you know what I did yesterday, I sat in silence!  What do you want to do today – let’s meditate!

What if we thought of stopping for prayer as an event, an outing, a treat?  What if we understood the divine to be like a best friend to bring on the T into Boston?  What if we automatically stopped in silence when we have a question, as naturally and quickly as we google to answer a trivia query?

We are fascinated with the electronic information at our fingertips.  We are like distracted children glancing from computer screen to phone screen to TV screen.  In the place of centered stillness sits the wisdom and love of the eternal.  This power is shrouded in mystery.  Its meaning is deeper than language.  It invites us to practice the courage of choosing love over darkness moment after moment after moment.  We are welcomed into a discipline of focus resulting in peaceful serenity.

Too often, we consider prayer and meditation to be drudgery – like going on a diet or going to the gym, a stern practice to stay healthy.  But what if we imagined silent time with God as a joy?  Like a child getting an ice cream cone or a puppy playing on the beach.  The divine source of love dances with joy when you turn your focus toward the holy.  God’s joy is infectious and touches our heart and soul with happiness.  So imagine the newspaper headline repeated day after day: “Thousands sit in silence… serenity and joy spread through the city…”  You can make that happen today – by simply pausing for prayer.