In dire circumstances, we might even find ourselves listening for God in new and different ways, because of our acute awareness of our vulnerability as well as our need for salvation. (I don’t mean salvation in that grand cosmic sense so much as in that intimate need for a steadying hand in the midst of grief, or a whisper of solidarity in the throes of trauma.) Who can afford the pretense of independence then? We quiet ourselves because there may be nothing left to say, because we have prayed all the prayers we know how to pray. We do not have words anymore.
