Many thousands of years ago, before our Lord went back to the Father, He promised us that He would never leave us. He promised that He would be with us until the end of the age. And so we believe that the Lord is with us in spirit; here, now, and for always

However, haven't there been times in our lives when we actually felt
His absence more intensely than we believed in His abiding presence? Haven't there been seasons on end when we actually sensed we were going through all this, alone? And don't we sometimes feel that our Lord of wisdom and counsel, seems to have locked Himself away behind divine silence?

What we perceive as a divine withdrawal leaves us wondering when this dark cloud shall lift; when pain and discomfort will no longer pile upon each other. While such times last, we realize the power that despair wields upon us, so that we say "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

We are no strangers to suffering and a sense of abandonment, it brands painfully on our spirit. So when suffering and illness walk us to the edge of despair, this God with us, this Son of God who promised to stay with us 'till
The end of time, He holds us, He reigns us in, and binds us to hope

Yes, many times, He does seem to bind us with such fragile threads of small comfort. Yet, we do not dare cut Him loose and away for Jesus, Our Lord, no stranger to suffering Himself, is compassionate

So what is this silence all about? We wish to believe that this silence is a time when Emmanuel actually suffers with us, and prays in us, in words beyond all understanding