I perceive, by your letter, you are in doubt about the grace which
passes interiorly from heart to heart. We notice an illustration of
this in the woman who touched our Lord, when he said: "I perceive that
virtue is gone out of me." In a similar manner, without words, one
heart may communicate grace to another heart, as God imparts grace to
the soul. But if the soul is not in a state to receive it, the grace
of the interior is not communicated, as is expressed in another
passage; "If they are not children of peace, your peace will return to
you again." This illustrates, according to my view, pure interior
communications of the grace of God, from heart to heart, which the soul
relishes in silence, and which silence is often more efficacious than a
multitude of words.
At our last interviews I had an inclination for silence, but finding in
you an aversion to silent communion, I entered into conversation, but
without any interior correspondence on my part, and, evidently, without
any benefit to you. God would teach you, my dear child, there is a
silence of the soul through which he operates, filling it with the
unction of grace, to be diffused on other hearts who are in a state of
receptivity, often more efficacious than words to replenish the soul.
We find this still harmonious action in nature. The sun, the moon, and
stars, shine in silence. The voice of God is heard in the silence of
the soul. The operation of grace is in silence, as it comes from God,
and may it not reach and pass from soul to soul without the noise of
words? O, that all Christians knew what if means to _keep silence_
before the Lord!