Light On Dark Water

The Pope on Silence

From his weekly audience today:

To hear God’s word requires the cultivation of outward and inward silence, so that His voice can resound within our hearts and shape our lives…

Silence has the capacity to open a space in our inner being, a space in which God can dwell…

In our prayers we often find ourselves facing the silence of God. We almost experience a sense of abandonment; it seems that God does not listen and does not respond. But this silence, as happened to Jesus, does not signify absence. Christians know that the Lord is present and listens, even in moments of darkness and pain, of rejection and solitude. 

(Via the Vatican Information Service.)

Interestingly, he also says 

This principle holds true for individual prayer, but also for our liturgies which, to facilitate authentic listening, must also be rich in moments of silence and of non verbal acceptance.

Americans seem to have difficulty with this idea.

Maclin Horton
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4 responses to “The Pope on Silence”

  1. Janet

    Yesterday, I was going to say something here, but I kept thinking, “Well, you can’t be silent if you aren’t,” so yesterday I was silent.
    My spiritual director has asked me to keep silence for five minutes a day, so I sit in front of my picture of Jesus, I make a spiritual Communion, I set the alarm on my defunct cell phone for five minutes, and I try to still my mind, which is well nigh impossible. Distracted as I am, it has been a fruitful practice. Day before yesterday, the time seemed to go on and on, “Surely,” I thought, “this is longer than five minutes,” but I tried to resist the temptation to look. Finally, I gave in and found that it had been about 10 minutes. I think that I have discovered that I can go about 8 minutes before I’m so distracted that I can’t think of anything except when the time will be up.
    I thirst for silence in church. I have to go to a parish other than mine to find it. This is one of the really wonderful things about adoration chapels. Most people know you should be quiet there, in fact, there is usually a weight of silence when you enter the door, and it’s much easier for me to still my thoughts there.
    AMDG

    Reply
  2. Mac

    I was definitely aware of the irony in my talking about it, too.
    Of course I agree completely with you about adoration chapels, since adoration is second only to the Mass in keeping my spiritual life…alive. I just wish I could experience real silence. My wife has often expressed her vexation that the people in charge of liturgy seem to believe that there should never be any silence whatsoever.
    Years ago I tried a prayer which involved being still and silent for some length of time and trying to empty your mind of everything except the Holy Spirit. I think it was longer than 5 minutes but I can’t remember for sure. It always turned into a desperate and frequently losing attempt to stay awake.

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  3. Janet

    I definitely could not do it in the evening. I’d be out like a flash.
    AMDG

    Reply
  4. Mac

    I was doing it at work on my lunch break, which was already too late. Maybe if I had tried it first thing in the morning. I can still remember staring at the surface-you-can-stick-pins-into that came up from the back of my desk and trying to keep my eyes open.

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