3. GAMES

4. Riddle: If you speak my name, I disappear

5. Riddle: SILENCE

6. Lent: time of preparation for Easter It lasts 40 days and 40 nights (not including Sundays) from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday) It’s 40 days and 40 nights because that’s how long Jesus spent in the desert Lent

7. All Christian denominations spend this time preparing for the high point of the liturgical year and Christian story, the Resurrection To mark Lent, Christians do three main things” Give things up (fast) Make a special effort to help others (almsgiving) Spend more time in prayer

8. Silence We think Jesus spent most, if not all, of his time in the desert in silence. How much time do you spend in silence each day? How much time just contemplating? How much is taken up on Facebook, BBM, Candy Crush, etc.?

9. Silence If my day were a musical score, how full of notes would it be? Link to John Cage 4’33 ♫

10. How much… are you busy? Very little Lots

11. Very little Lots How much… Time on social media?

12. Very little Lots How much… using technology each day?

13. Very little Lots How much… time in silence?

14. Very little Lots How much… time in prayer?

15. World Religions Silence appears as a significant element in all major world religions. For many, it is essential for the most important spiritual practices, and integral as a way to meet God. Many atheists agree that silence and meditation are valuable exercises for the individual.

16. World Religions Group work (not a time to practice being silent…)

17. Islam The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) went on retreat to a cave in Mount Hira. Contemporary Sufis have tried to re-establish the practice of silent meditation and ritual devotion. Some Muslims are cautious about meditation because they don’t think silence should take over from speaking the words of the Qur'an.

18. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) spoke against idle words Islam “It is better to speak to a seeker of knowledge than to remain silent, but silence is better than idle words.”

19. The ideals of the Sikh faith advise the devotee to rise early in the morning and meditate on God. Sikhs normally do not say prayers while kneeling as Christians do. They either recite the word Waheguru or are completely silent. Sikhism

20. Sam Harris, one of the new atheists like Richard Dawkins, believes that “There are, in fact, many methods of meditation and “spiritual” inquiry that can greatly enhance our mental health while offering no affront to the intellect.” Sam Harris wrote a book called The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Atheism

21. The Carthusians are one of the most silent Catholic religious orders. They speak in the afternoon of one day a week; when in communal prayer; and when necessary for practical aspects of work and spiritual guidance. Clip from ‘Into Great Silence’ Christianity

22. Play clip from ‘The Big Silence’ Silence and me?

23. Reflection Led reflection Silent reflection

24. “Silence is a source of Great Strength.” -Lao Tzu

25. “If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet...maybe we could understand something.” ― Federico Fellini

26. “Quiet is peace. Tranquillity. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.” ― Hosseini, The Kite Runner

27. After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. -Aldous Huxley

28. “Silence is pure and holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.” ― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

29. “Let silence take you to the core of life.” - Rumi

30. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. - Gandhi

31. "I make monastic silence a protest against the lies of politicians, propagandists and agitators..." —Thomas Merton, In My Own Words

32. “I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

33. “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein

34. “In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you...Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.” ― Mother Teresa

35. “Silence is the mother of truth.” ― Benjamin Disraeli

37. Give up facebook, twitter or something else and raise money for Charity?

38. What might you do this Lent? Give things up (fast) Make a special effort to help others (almsgiving) Spend more time in prayer

39. End Back to rest of PP

40. With thanks to Loreto College, Manchester, for the main content of this lesson.