“Every great work, all holiness, is born in silence and recollection.” — St. John Paul II
Every great work is indeed born in silence. Every life-changing book, every inspiring work of art, every momentous discovery, and even our selfless acts of love like giving, listening, and embracing our loved ones are done in silence.
Yet, with our mobile devices, our gadgets, our social media accounts, our Netflix subscription, our games, we often do not have time for silence.
Listening to audiobooks and podcasts is a productive use of our time, especially during our commutes or while doing our chores. But sometimes, we listen only to escape the silence.
We are no longer comfortable in silence. At night, when everything finally settles down after a long day’s work, when my heart and my mind are finally silent, I often grab my phone and drown the silence with the noise from my emails and sports news.
We need silence to contemplate, to reflect, to discover our hearts’ deepest desires, and to immerse ourselves in the work that we do.
Most importantly, we need silence to hear the voice of God. This when we hear God’s words of love and also His command and commission to love others.
Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them. It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret. — Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 2602
Do you have time for silence?