"A Hush Must Fall Upon Our Hearts"

Ronald Knox, in writing about the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, articulates the importance of a reverential silence:

"Surely he would have us remind ourselves that the presence into which we enter when we pray is one of infinite majesty, to which words can do no justice; all the praises and aspirations we can offer are a kind of profanation; silence is the best tribute we can pay.  We have not learned much about prayer until we have learned that an attitude of loving expectancy, of waiting upon God and allowing our souls to be overcome by the thought of his greatness, is the first preparation we need.  We are to call him our Father, with childlike confidence in his love for us; but, having so addressed him, we are not to plunge straight into the business of petition, as if nothing could possibly be of more importance than the needs which we feel at the moment, as if nothing could possibly interest him except our petty concerns, our importunate anxieties.  The citizens of that heaven in which he dwells cry "Holy, holy, holy" before him day and night; shall not we do well to tune our voices to that chorus of praise, before we dare to ask him for anything?  Hallowed be his name; a hush must fall upon our hearts, a pause must be made in our tumultuous thoughts, before the right atmosphere can be established in which we, creatures of a day, can approach him who dwells in inaccessible light, the sovereign Ruler of Creation." (Pastoral and Occasional Sermons, 29)