BE VAWY QUIET. I'M HUNTING WABBIT

From the unconfirmed rumors department: It has been passed through the grapevine that our new bishop (mind you, this is only clerical gossip) has commented that it seems we do much more music here than that to which he has become accustomed. There may very well be truth to that. There has been a push to keep music pretty well going particularly through the entire communion rite from after the “Ecce” until the “Oremus” for the prayer after communion.

C. came to visit yesterday. (I think she is becoming a contemplative though she is fighting it.) She had to visit another parish for some reason for Sunday mass. “It drove me nuts,” she reports, “the music never stopped. There was not even a moment of silence. Even when the lector was walking up to do the readings the played an interlude.”

Kind of sounds like the academy awards.

I suppose that is how many people style their lives: with a constant sound track. In the morning the telvision set goes on. In the car, the radio is on. Walking about or exercising, the Ipod is plugged into the ears, at grocery stores music is piped in. In restaurants they have televisions squawking. Outdoor stores have seemed to pick up on all of this and now blast music out onto the street. The JCC where I work out has different radio stations blasting in every room. Then there are cell phones at every moment of every day. Grrrrrrrr.

When I was afforded the opportunity to visit the Vatican, (at the time) Archbishop Broglio kindly arranged for me to have mass with John Paul II in his private chapel. (WOW) Before we walked in he was kneeling at his prie-dieu and had been there praying before the Blessed Sacrament in silence for at least an hour before we walked in that being his routine. When asked what he had to say to Jesus all that time he once responded, “Very little. I spent most of my time listening.”

That is the purpose of silence. To listen. To listen to what rises in our hearts and minds when the constant bombardment of noise stops flooding our ears. When we stop producing sounds ourselves and “be still and know that I Am God.” What rises to consciousness? Blaise Pasquale said, “Most evils come into the world because human beings cannot sit still in a chair for thirty minutes.” This can be a scary place to go. It is here that we face our true selves and find out if we are comfortable with ourselves or not. It is where we stand before God without distraction. In this way silence is a place as much as a quality of sound and it is only accessible to the still and attentive.