A Sense of Silence - Fr. Steve Mondiek
I remember when attending Mass in my parochial school, there was a profound sense of silence. This was before, during and after Mass. No doubt, the Sisters of Charity instilled this practice in our little hearts, but is this ‘silence’ still with us today?
Many Catholics complain about the absence of silence in our Mass. It is important, therefore, to recall the meaning of silence as a Christian ascetical value, and therefore as a necessary condition for contemplative prayer. We should not forget the fact that times of silence are officially prescribed during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, so as to highlight the importance of silence for a high-quality liturgical renewal.
We should remember that silence is a form of prayer and it is also a requisite for us to pray. We can look at it as an ascetical practice. What is asceticism? It can be a form of self-denial to obtain a higher spiritual level. According to His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah, “Asceticism is an indispensable means that helps us to remove from our life anything that weighs it down, in other words, anything that hampers our spiritual or interior life and therefore is an obstacle to prayer. Yes, it is indeed in prayer that God communicates his Life to us, in other words, manifests his presence in our soul by irrigating it with the streams of his Trinitarian Love: the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And prayer is essentially silence. One must practice coming to that necessary silence in order to be receptive to the seed of God’s word…it must find that place of “good soil” where it can “produce a crop.”
Personal silence of this sort is vital for those times in the Liturgy where silence is a response to God’s word. All of the great saints were great prayers…or became great prayers. Not all began their journeys as masters of prayer. Many struggled with it for years. St. Teresa of Avila and others wrote books on it.
Silence is necessary as a form of prayer itself. It is a searching for and a response to the Living God. If I enter into prayer, what good is it if I rattle off all my requests, if I am never quiet to hear God’s reply? This is like in a marriage if one spouse does all the talking how will they hear the reply of the other? The same can be said with our prayer with God and the individual at Liturgy. The worship of the Father in and through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit is an act so holy that it demands times of silence — the silence of adoration, the silence of contentment, the silence of profound awe. Silence is an act of love…it is total receptivity. The individual, the soul is made for God like a flower pot is made for growing plants. Plants grow in silence and their very beginnings are hidden deep within the “womb” of the rich soil. Silence changes us. We need the sacred “action” of silence.
The Gospels record that Jesus prayed in silence, even all night (Lk 6:12), or while withdrawing to deserted places (Lk 5:16; Mk 1:35). Silence is typical of the meditation by the Word of God; we find it again particularly in Our Blessed Lady’s reflection in the Gospel of Luke about the mystery of her Son (Lk 2:19, 51). Saint Joseph has no recorded words in scripture, yet in his silence God speaks clearly for what was required of him. One who has been schooled in the ways of God can easily enter into prayer anytime, anywhere. St. Paul exhorts us to “Pray without ceasing.”
All parishes should allow for silence in the Church as soon as one enters into it for to enter into a Catholic Church is to pull back the door into heaven itself. We are to separate ourselves from the outside world. But sometimes churches become like meeting places and catching up with old friends. Yet most priests fail to address the issue of silence in their churches. To speak up — even politely — to people in the parish is to be met with opposition and maybe a look of bewilderment as well as the typical response that “Mass hasn’t started yet” …or “Mass is over”.
We must remember that Our Lord is still present in the reserved Eucharist. Thus, Mass is often reduced to somewhat of a show. On the door to the Monastery of the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Manchester, N.H. is a sign which says, “For the sake of Jesus present in the tabernacle kindly maintain silence in this place”.
In the Old Testament the (minor) prophet, Habakkuk declared to the people of ancient Israel in his oracle of the same name: “the LORD is in his holy temple; silence before him, all the earth!” The prophet Zephaniah likewise calls for silence: “Silence in the presence of the Lord GOD!…Yes, the LORD has prepared a sacrifice…”. If these two prophets called for silence before the presence of God how much more should we the people of the New Testament be silent before Jesus present in the tabernacle — Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity.
In his article, Silence at Mass, David Philppart describes silence as “akin to these: the silence that gestates between people who know and love each other so well that words are not always necessary; the awe-filled silence evoked by an encounter with beauty; the calm quiet that befalls those who gaze, listen or touch with their hearts as well as with their eyes, ears and hands.”
Further in the same article he says “The liturgy’s silence is communal. The assembly keeps a communion of quiet. Each one tries to the best of his or her ability to be still, but it is more than just a bunch of individuals not saying or doing anything coincidentally. It is the Body of Christ listening for and attending to the voice of God.” And again, “Silence in the liturgy is silence kept on purpose.” It is deliberate and therefore active. It’s not an interlude, not an intermission, not an interruption of the action. At its time, it is the action: We keep the silence. “Be still and know that I am God,” the psalmist sings. Silence in the liturgy is the active attending to God that Samuel showed when, upon being awakened from his sleep by the voice of God, he replied, “Here I am: I come to do your will,” and then stood quietly before the Divine.
God bless!