Silence

How are we with silence?  I mean the kind of deep, true quiet where God speaks.  How are we with that kind of silence?  I think many times we are much too over excited with the events of our days to even recognize the presence of silence or to allow it when it presents itself.  I am reminded of a joke I heard a stand up comic use when I was in high school.  “Last night there was nothing on TV so I turned on a light.”

Are we equally compulsive about silence?  Do we turn on the TV, or ipod, or computer, or music just because we cannot stand the sound of sheer silence?  Fr. Thomas Keating said that silence is the only language God speaks and everything else is a bad translation.

If we want to hear the sound of God’s voice we may have to turn off other things in our busy lives.  Silence is there – God is there – if we but take the moment to immerse ourselves in the silence and listen.

Perhaps this Lent is also calling us to a greater amount of silence in our days so we might be able to hear the true sound of God.  Everything else is a bad translation.

Let the silent moments be graced moments.

 

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