The need for Silence

Mother Teresa's 100th birthday is approaching and I was struck by this quote that is with all of the announcements about her birth, because she is literally credited with hundreds of famous quotes,

"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grow in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls." Mother Teresa.



This has been hitting me a lot recently, the need for silence. Technology has become such an assault on our senses, that if you don't actively seek silence everyday you will not find it. I am not against technology, as I am a proud owner of the iPhone, and I can see the good that technology brings to man, the danger is only when we become a slave to these things. A clear sign that we are becoming a slave, is when we value what's fake more than we value what's real.



This leaped off the page for me in the book Mr. Blue, which was required reading at all Jesuit high schools. The book was written in 1928, and it talks about a time when men will rather, "look at the ceilings in their rooms,", then , "explore the fields, the streams, the ocean, the mountains, the flowers,". Think about this for a second, that is exactly what has happened to kids today. They would rather play video games in their rooms, fake adventures, then find real adventures in the real world. It happens to adults to, our blackberry's, our iPhone, our gadgets, and we forsake what is most real, Our spouse, our kids, nature.



Again, technology offers the world a lot of good things, but we just have to be careful that it doesn't become an idol. The answer in my opinion is silence, nothing is more real than God's grace in our souls.

The Importance of Rest

Here is a great quote from Pope Benedict's Angelus a couple weeks back;

"Dear Friends, as I said, this Gospel passage is very important at vacation time, because it recalls the fact that the human person must work, must involve himself in domestic and professional concerns, to be sure, but he has need of God before all else, who is the interior light of love and truth. Without love, even the most important activities lose value and do not bring joy. Without a profound meaning, everything we do is reduced to sterile and disordered activism. And who gives us love and truth if not Jesus Christ? So let us learn, brothers and sisters, to help each other, to work together, but first of all to choose together the better part, which is and will always be our greater good.”

My goal for August this year is to use the opportunity that the month provides for additional silence and rest.