# Quieting Day 4 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. > ### Opening Prayer: *Uncrowd my heart, O God, until silence speaks in your still small voice; turn me from the hearing of words, and the making of words, and the confusion of much speaking, to listening, waiting, stillness, silence.~Thomas Merton* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 23 #### A Psalm of David. *23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.* *He leads me beside still waters.[a] 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness[b] for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c] I will fear no evil,* *for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.* *5 You prepare a table before mein the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord forever.[g]* #### Scripture for the Day: Psalm 131:1-3 *I Have Calmed and Quieted My Soul A Song of Ascents. Of David.* *131 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high;* *I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.* *2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.* *3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.* #### Reading for Reflection: To be calm and quiet all by yourself is hardly the same as sleeping, but means being fully *awake and following with close attention every move going on inside you. Silence requires the discipline to recognize the urgedato get up and go again as a temptation to look elsewhere for what is close at hand. It offers the freedom to stroll in your own inner yard, and to rake the leaves there and clear the paths so you can easily find the way to your heart. Perhaps there will be much fear and uncertainty when you first come upon this “unfamiliar terrain,” but slowly you will discover an order and a familiarity which deepens your longing to stay home. (With Open Hands by Henri J. M. Nouwen)* *Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself. ~Teresa of Avila* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Be Still My Soul *Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.* *Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.* *Leave to thy God to order and provide;* *In every change, He faithful will remain.* *Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend* *Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.* *Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake* *To guide the future, as He has the past.* *Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;* *All now mysterious shall be bright at last.* *Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know* *His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.* ### Closing Prayer: *O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)*