Silence

The other day a dear friend of mine spoke of serving at a feast day Mass with a description so profound and yet so simple: "There was such a silence."

Silence.

The word rings out so beautifully and so fruitfully.  Yet how many people go to prayer and say they feel nothing or hear nothing and grow discouraged when they do not see the miracles in their lives that they desire?  Or perhaps the question is rather how many of us do not?

Often we find in prayer only silence, at least when we quit talking long enough to listen.  It is a powerful silence—a silence full of awe and even fearsome to us.

In my journey, I am learning more and more how powerful is that silence.  It is not the silence of a manmade idol that cannot heed our prayers, but rather the silence of a Being so great that our senses cannot fathom His greatness, so wise that our minds cannot understand His wisdom, and so loving that our hearts cannot contain His love.

He could work miracles so amazing that we would fall down in awe before them.  Yet how often are we distracted by the miracles and forget the miracle-worker?

Instead of miracles, He comes in silence.  He humbles Himself to become powerless in the depths of our hearts that we might open the door and accept Him into our lives.  Only once we have learned to find Him in the silence and seeming-emptiness does He reveal Himself.