Silence is the language spoken by solitude. Perhaps at first reckoning, we might consider silence merely the absence of sound. But silence is not something that begins only when sound ends. There is something awesome and breathtaking about real silence; it is numinous, pulling us out of our self-containment and calling us towards the invisible. Religious seekers "home in" on silence as homing pigeons return to their roost, because therein lies the language for personal communication with the sacred.
— Peter-Damian Belisle, The Language of Silence