January 2026
A Contemplative Exercise for January 2026
The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered; its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive. In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group – probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.
Saying for January 2026: ‘Listen to me in silence’, Isaiah 41.1 (NRSV)
To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles, or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.
Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence: ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).
Introduction to the first silence – a preparation for listening with the mind:
‘Listen to me in silence’.
These words from Isaiah Chapter 41, v.1 are very relevant for us as we all face into a new year, with its opportunities and challenges. God is speaking to His people. Listening and keeping silence is a very familiar practice for us in the Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer, at our Annual Retreats or Quiet Days, at our Fellowship Group Meetings, at home while praying, or while outdoors enjoying God’s beautiful Creation, silently. But keeping silent is not always easy, perhaps especially in this post-Christmas month. Our thoughts may crowd into our mind, and worries appear magnified when there’s no noise, so to speak. We can all vouch for that fact when trying to sleep sometimes, in the middle of the night. Being gentle with ourselves can help, there’s no need for us to wrestle with our wayward mind. There’s no need for us to do anything while listening to God in silence, except be there.
We do need to prepare ourselves to accept God’s invitation to enter into his ‘space’; God’s presence. I am reminded of God’s instruction to Moses at the burning bush: ‘Do not come any closer, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground’. We are treading ‘Holy Ground’ any time that God is in communion with us and we with Him. We are entering a sacred place, a holy place, a place perhaps previously run-of-the-mill, but now transformed by the presence of God. God prepared Moses for his encounter with Him. He ‘enticed’ Moses, if you like, by allowing Moses to notice that a burning bush kept on burning, but wasn’t being consumed. Sometimes God has to do amazing things to get our attention.
Here in Isaiah, we have God issuing very clear words to the people of Israel: ‘Listen to Me in silence’. While some of the words in Chapter 41 may sound like the scene from a courtroom, God wishes through them to get His people’s attention, and then to give them His message that he is in control, not earthly rulers. It would appear that the Book of Isaiah covers various periods in Israel’s history, including when the Assyrians had devastated Palestine, and later, in King Cyrus’s day, when the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, which itself was under threat, and eventually fell to Cyrus. Fear was in the hearts of God’s people. In the last verse of Chapter 40, the Prophet assures God’s people in words very familiar to us from our Prayer Books: ‘Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint’. Despite our constant wrong-doings, and failures, God wants to tell us today that, ‘I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you’.
While preparing a Sermon or Address for the following Sunday, I often walk in a nearby forest here in Ireland. It regularly happens that while walking, praying and enjoying God’s beautiful Creation, His forest animals/trees/forest sounds, God silently puts into my mind, ideas, thoughts, little gems that really help with the Sermon’s theme. Isaiah too saw that ‘the whole earth is full of His Glory’. His words, ‘Those who hope in the Lord, will soar on wings like eagles’, contain such beautiful imagery, and such hope for us during these dark January days, as we wonder about the New Year ahead. God’s command to ‘Listen to Me in silence’ allows Him to gate-crash our busy minds, so that we can spend quality time with Him.
So let us now allow our busy minds to rest, yet listen for His Voice in our first silence, so that the Saying can speak to us: ‘Listen to Me in silence’.
A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes. The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.
The first silence ends with the words: ‘Father, we thank You for the gift of Your Word’.
Introduction to the second Silence – a preparation for listening with the heart:
‘Listen to me in silence’.
Some years ago, I wonder were some of you as captivated as I was by some beautiful, poignant words from that year’s Women’s World Day of Prayer Service? This Service was created by women from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The words were written/spoken by a deaf lady called Emily, who perhaps lives in a permanently silent world. She said: ‘But I know that, whatever I go through, God whispers His peace and love into my heart. And I don’t need to be able to hear to know His whisper’. Let us really take those words into our hearts again: ‘But I know that, whatever I go through, God whispers His peace and love into my heart. And I don’t need to be able to hear to know His whisper’. She doesn’t need to be told by God to ‘Listen to Me in silence’. Through her own silence, she already ‘knows’ that God whispers His Peace and Love into her heart. How does Emily ‘hear’ God’s whispered peace and love?
Perhaps a verse from one of our Fellowship Members’ poems might help us to answer that question. It’s from Canon Raymond Fox’s Book of Poems called Yearning, and the poem is called, ‘You wow me’
You promise to
show me
Guide me
Help me hope in
You
You wow me to
conversation
And silence with
You.
God promises to
show us, guide us, help us to place our hope in Him. He said to an anxious
Moses at the burning bush, when Moses expressed his unwillingness to lead God’s
people out of slavery in Egypt, God said, ‘I will be with you’. So too our Lord
Jesus said to His disciples, and says to us: ‘and know, I will be with you
always, to the end of time’. Emily’s words, ‘But I know His whisper’, and
Jesus’ promise ‘Know, I will be with you always’, is whispered into each of our
hearts, perhaps most clearly in our silence with God.
Let us now seek to allow God to whisper His words of peace and love to us, as we prepare ourselves in this silence, to receive this Saying into our hearts: ‘Listen to me in silence’.
A time is now kept for the silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.
The second silence ends with the words: ‘Father we thank You that Your Word is alive and within us’.
Introduction to the time of Intercession – taking God’s Word outwards into the world.
‘Listen to me in silence’.
Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the Saying. For example:
‘Alison and your family … God says, "Listen to me in silence" '.
As we allow the Word to speak through us, we might direct God’s Word towards those people and situations where there is suffering, hurt and an absence of joy, and where abiding in God would bring comfort.
Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: ‘Father, we thank You that Your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray’.
The Conclusion
Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches, which pour forth from You as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to You, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with Your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen.
You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.