Silence

Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily about the life of St. Peter Celestine last year. He was sharing "some teachings that are also valid for our days." They regard silence.

He spoke about this Peter as a " 'seeker of God' from his youth, a man who was desirous to find the answers to the great questions of our existence: Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I alive? For whom do I live? He went in search of truth and happiness, he went in search of God and, to hear his voice, decided to separate himself from the world and to live as a hermit.

Silence thus became the element that characterized his daily life. And it is precisely in external silence, but above all in internal silence, that he succeeded in perceiving God's voice, a voice that was able to guide his life.

...that is important for us: We live in a society in which it seems that every space, every moment must be "filled" with initiatives, activity, sound; often there is not even time to listen and dialogue.

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us not be afraid to be silent outside and inside ourselves, so that we are able not only to perceive God's voice, but also the voice of the person next to us, the voices of others."

My own anecdote to this teaching happened yesterday just before dinner. I sat in a few minutes of silence to seek a word from God. I wrote in my journal, "I will heal you." Not long after dinner my husband suggested we go to a perpetual adoration chapel. As I sat in the silence of the chapel with him an hour or so later, my eyes riveted to the words on the chapel's stone wall "I will indeed heal." 

Lord, you are so good to grace us with the gift of perceiving your voice and then confirming it with us to assure us we indeed heard You.