Silence

why

how does the church encourage this, what sayings of the father are there...
and in all cases shall we be silent... and do u have verses pertianing to this topic...

does anyone have a website of the christian views about silence?!

jydeacon

Another day when a council was being held in Scetis,
the Fathers treated Moses with contempt in order to test
him, saying, 'Why does this black man come among us?'
When he heard this he kept silence. When the council was
dismissed, they said to him, 'Abba, did that not grieve you at
all? 'He said to them, 'I was grieved, but I kept silence.'
Anba Moses the Black

Some brothers were coming from Scetis to see Abba
Anthony. When they were getting into a boat to go there,
they found an old man who also wanted to go there. The
brothers did not know him. They sat in the boat, occupied
by turns with the words of the Fathers, Scripture and their
manual work. As for the old man, he remained silent. When
they arrived on shore they found that the old man was going
to the cell of Abba Anthony too. When they reached the
place, Anthony said to them, 'You found this old man a good
companion for the journey?' Then he said to the old man,
'You have brought many good brethren with you, father.'
The old man said, 'No doubt they are good, but they do not
have a door to their house and anyone who wishes can enter
the stable and loose the donkey.' He meant that the brethren said
whatever came into their mouths.

Having withdrawn to the solitary life he made the
same prayer again and he heard a voice saying to him,
'Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the
source of sinlessness.'

The calmness of the wilderness leads to the calmness of
the senses and the heart, as St. John Saba says: “Silence
your mouth, for your heart to talk, silence your heart for
God to talk.”

A few selections you may use from sayings of the desert fathers as well as the sublimity of monasticism