Silence & Contemplation

“Silence is God’s first language.”
–St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

A few days ago I felt very irritated after work. I didn’t even know what irritated me. It was only after I got home and after I relaxed that I found out why I was so irritated: NOISE!

It was horrible. After working practically all day in a noisy environment and after all the commotion on the drive home, I finally got home and went into my room. I sat down in my relatively quiet room and I just sat still. Suddenly, I realized that my ears were ringing. And not just ringing, I could still actually “hear” the noise as if I was outside in the middle of a busy street. It was as if I had recorded all the noise I had heard that day and I just kept playing it over and over again! At the same time I also realized that I had not talked with God that day at all. Then I asked myself, HOW CAN I TALK WITH GOD IF I’M SURROUNDED BY NOISE ALL THE TIME!!??

Anyway, after all this happened I decided to read a little bit about the importance of silence in our spiritual life. After a few minutes of searching, I found a homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI in which he talked about silence and contemplation.

I know that many of you have experienced what I experienced, and so I now share our Holy Father’s homily with all of you. I hope that you enjoy it and that you learn somethin new!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I have not prepared a real Homily, only a few ideas for meditation.
As clearly appears, the mission of St Bruno, today’s saint, is, we might say, interpreted in the prayer for this day, which reminds us, despite being somewhat different in the Italian text, that his mission was silence and contemplation.
But silence and contemplation have a purpose: they serve, in the distractions of daily life, to preserve permanent union with God. This is their purpose: that union with God may always be present in our souls and may transform our entire being. –For the complete text visit: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20061006_commissione-teologica_en.html

This entry was posted on January 11, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Benedict XVI, Pope. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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