Holy Night, Silent Night

Merry Christmas!

Friends, among the works of art about the Nativity of Our Lord, one that struck me for its simplicity is George La Tour’s “Adoration of the Shepherds” A classmate presented it to me recently.

The adoration of the sheperds was a common theme among XVII century’s painters. Here, de La Tour presents it with drastic simplicity, without angels, clouds, or halos. De La Tour reveals the capacity to focus on the essential, excluding every superficial detail and concentrates on the effects of the only source of light in the scene. The baby looks like a small mummy, but has a well done asleeping face. The shepherds are people simple but with great dignity. It can be seen in their cloths, hair and the tools for their labor. A little sheep smells the baby and some wheat. Mary appears dominant by the left and her hands are the only ones in an attitude of prayer. Joseph protects them with the heat of a lamp. The hands movements are awesome. They express life: work, nourishment, feast, protection and prayer. De La Tour represents a world of internal light with great serenity. He proposes to see interiorly, which is the only way to feed a presence. The seer is invited to take place to complete the circle around the baby.

Let’s friends take a minute today, in silence, total silence and solitude and take that place to complete the circle opened by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. Let’s rest in silence in front of Him called by the evangelist the Savior, the Lord Christ.

Like the pope said no so long ago, nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother’s care; a child born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God ’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfills the promise of the prophet Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the child lying in the manger.

God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby – defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him.

The Altar de la Patria

Via del Corso displays lights with the Italian flag colors. This year Italy celebrates 150 years as a Republic

Of course, the Coliseum deserves its Christmas tree also.

Via del Corso from the Piazza del Populo

Via Condoti form the Spanish steps

Lost Saints of Rome

I met Luigi in a public transportation bus coming back home from celebrating the Eucharist with the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa. I go to their convent the third Saturday of the month to say Mass in the morning. It is always challenging, but I look forward to it. It is the only homily I say in the month. I don’t know what to preach them. They preach to us all the time. However, I preached about hope that day; on how we bring hope to the world just by believing. I got on the bus route number 85 at about 8:30am. The bus was rather crowed. All the seats were taken and many people were standing. Not so rare for Rome. However, I noticed a free seat next to him. Nobody seemed interested on taking it. It was strange. I checked around if anyone else would take it, but not. So without hesitation I took the seat.

Luigi was on the window seat and distracted looking through it. When he realized I was there, he seemed being surprised. He turned his face around from the window and met my eyes. I smiled and felt the smell. I, then, understood why no one was there with him. He turned away again to the window. It was like indifference was his daily bread. I couldn’t resist the desire to talk to him and look at his eyes again. So I touched his shoulder to call his attention. It seemed so foreign to him: touching, attention, affection, importance. He looked at me with reservation but at this time, he smiled back. We never talked but we looked at each other for the rest of the trip, 5 minutes … maybe? That moment was broken when I reached my destination. I got out of the bus astounded and only could come back to myself to take care of my wet face.  

I never have seen him again, but his ragged look, unpronounceable smell, messy hair and bear are in my mind ever since. I wonder in what corner or street he sleeps. What he made me realize wasn’t the great amount of homeless people in Rome but my indifference towards them. And I will guess everybody’s indifference. When they approach us begging for money, we are prompt in turning them away, because we have rationalized their needs and state of life very well. They are lazy, they are addicts, they are just not good. I am not going to patronize it. It is the answer we give to console our attitude. But you know what? Luigi made realized how materialistic we are in that regard. How materialistic they are also in what they beg for. That morning on bus route 85, I saw hopeless and lack of affection; two major expressions of simple no love. I saw my opportunity for simplicity once more. I saw vulnerability ready to be taking care of.

I didn’t know what I should do then. I prayed with Luigi image like for a month or so. I walked around noticing the great number of neighbors sleeping in thresholds, but afraid to approach any. Many ideas came to mind. I thought on preparing as many as possible sandwiches and go out to distribute them. I thought on writing to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) whose headquarters are right here. I thought unbelievable things to do for the homeless. But every time I got excited about any of those doable projects, I noticed each project being dependable of others and my dealings with bureaucracy. Again, Luigi reminded me how materialistic I was thinking. What Luigi begged was for no indifference, affection, simple love.

One recent morning this is what happened. My mother’s birthday was only some weeks ago. I remember growing up, my annual frustration of not being able to buy her a “suitable” gift for the occasion. But the great solution was to surprise her with a rose and breakfast on bed.  She told me stories about it when I called her this year for her birthday. For all of you who know me well, it is not a secret my difficulty to wake up in the mornings. I admire early birds, they are my heroes. I will rise up early to fulfill responsibilities but never for myself. So last Sunday at 6:00 am, I put together all of that. I prepared coffee, put it on a thermo bottle, grabbed some cornetos (Italian breakfast bread) and went down the block. It was chilly. This time I met Bill, Francesco, and Enzo still sleeping on their cardboards. I woke them up and told them I had coffee for breakfast. Again, like Luigi on route 85, they looked almost terrified. But this time, they made room for me to sit on their blankets; we talked, and had breakfast together. 

  

Like the pope said this morning: Prior to all of this is the encounter with Jesus Christ, inflaming us with love for God and for others, and freeing us from seeking our own ego. In the words of a prayer attributed to Saint Francis Xavier: I do good, not that I may come to Heaven thereby and not because otherwise you could cast me into Hell. I do it because of you, my King and my Lord. I came across this same attitude among the Sisters of Mother Teresa, who devote themselves to abandoned, sick, poor and suffering children, without asking anything for themselves, thus becoming inwardly rich and free. 

Getting ready .. I got a small tree!

Via Condoti, leaving Cafe Greco

Who said pasta can't be used as ornaments too!

St Peter's square is also getting ready for the holy night ...SILENT night

Why I Don’t Like Latin, Hate Doing Laundry and Other Student’s Feelings

Hello folks!

It has been a while without a word on these lines. The reason for that, I think, is that I have to experience a little more before Rome became a routine. To cope, I am writing from a table in one of Rome’s best cafés: Caffè Greco, 250 years of tradition.  Not too bad for Rome’s millenarian time table. It was the 18^th century haunt of foreign artists and writers such us Keats, Byron, and Goethe and composers like Liszt, Wagner, and Bizet all breakfasted and drank here. So did Casanova and mad king Ludwig of Bavaria. Today, Italians stand in the crowded foyer to sip a quick espresso, and we foreigners sit in a cozy back room. It seems the perfect place to come and write. It is my first time here and I have wanted to come since the moment I heard about it. However, I am a little disappointed, here are not writers anymore. It is full of snappy tourists. I am sitting in the back room, the one straight ahead down the hall. It is beautiful. It has red walls, paintings with beautiful frames. There is a piano in the corner opposed to me, some sculptures, busts and portraits that recall the café’s former artistic patrons.

I won’t go around the bush with the proposed question. I will answer it right away. Right away, great expression. Every time I hear it or say it, I don’t think of something which will be instant but it reminds me of one of my altar servers at St Edna who said to me the second time I saw him: I will tell you it right away: you are my favorite! A quiet complement for the baby priest I was then, intimidated even by the candles.

Ok now I will go straight. First of all, I don’t like Latin because, at this point of my life, I should know it by now and shouldn’t be studying it still. Furthermore, it takes me a lot of time from doing other things. Secondly, I hate doing laundry for a similar reason. It takes so much time, perhaps, an hour and a half from the moment I decide to do it to the moment I close the closet with everything hung and folded neatly. Also because Mai, in St Edna’s rectory, did it much better than me and it makes me dizzy to watch the watcher and drier machines spinning around. About other student’s feelings, sometimes I feel like going to a particular class where the teacher only reads from his book is such a waste of time. In short, just in case you have not noticed it, what I don’t like about being a student is the amount of time it takes.

But the next question is: what do I need time for? I have all the time for studying! It is my job. But I think I know what I am going through. It is actually a well known syndrome: STFD and DD (student tendency for distractions and daydreaming). Maybe some of you can relate to it. I suffered from it before, back in high school and college. But I think it is always there each time we are labeled with such noble activity.

Now I got distracted with the new set of customers at the table in front. This time there is a young couple with a baby. The mother unloads her bag with baby stuff: a thermo, baby bottle, dippers. The father holds the baby while checking his cell phone. She looks overwhelmed and the infant demands attention. Well, if this is not a writer’s place anymore, definitely it is filled with stuff to write about.

Now going back to our conversation, daydreaming is the closest attitude for prayer, especially when I feel prompted to be distracted from praying. When there is noise behind. When there are people running around in what is supposed to be a quiet place. The solution is to daydream. When I am in that almost mystic experience with my thoughts, I don’t hear anything nor notice anything around. It is only my dream and me, isn’t it? That’s the attitude for prayer in noisy circumstances. It is entering into the silence of myself shutting down the world for a while. Just like daydreaming.

At this point I changed my table. This new one has a very good view and sense of the room. This is a good place, except for the noisy people on the back. I am just going to ignore them because I am distracted writing. By the way, I am drinking tea, just in case anyone wonders.

So I guess what I want to say here is that time and responsibilities go together. It seems like time goes against fulfilling tasks. It is not because time got mad about it; but because I don’t make them to go along well. So I created a strategy against it. Normally and honestly it takes only 20 minutes to do Latin drills; but in real time I spend 2 hours. I don’t wonder what happens with the extra 100 minutes. It is crystal clear, or do you want to guess? I daydream or get distracted by unplanned stuff during those extra minutes. Therefore, the strategy is to plan the distractions beforehand. Every time I will study Latin or have to do laundry I come out with some distraction to go along the way. For example, laundry time is now an hour of spiritual reading. I got down one book so far. I don’t plan to do laundry anymore, but to read some chapters from any spiritual author in the laundry room. It is great, because it is like doing spiritual laundry. I am not sure what that should mean, but it sounds interesting. When I find out its meaning I will tell you. On the other hand, every time I go to a class where the teacher just reads from his book, I read too, and I even make some progress with complementary readings. It actually has given me a little bit more of free time to visit churches around and to practice Latin reading every inscription I see throughout the city. Just like when I learned how to read back in first grade.

In the end, time does not matter so much here, I am in the eternal city anyway. I am enjoying my studies along with the opportunities to live the culture and faith of this town. And the Lord? He is the one who takes all my time, even when I am not in prayer. What I found myself doing with my free time is looking for lost saints in Rome. Like Luigi. ...(will continue )

No, I am not sleeping. I am daydreaming!

This St Peter's basilica. Catholicism's major shrine full of "pilgrims." Imagine praying in this context.

Keeping vigil for the Immaculate Conception Solemnity. Inner courtyard in the house.

Immaculate Conception Column in Piazza Spagna.

The pope has arrived. Prayer service on December 8th.

Traditionally the pope comes on December 8th to pray here. It also has become the event to officially starts the pre Christmas season in the city.

Pope's Mass in St Peter's of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorating the bicentenial of Latinamerica countries' independencies.

The pope prayed for our continent through the intercession of la Morenita del Tepeyac! He also announced his visit to Mexico and Cuba next spring.



This is the closer I could get.



Saint Francis of Assisi, Pray for Us

Today October 4, 2011 I had the blessing of celebrating the Feast of Saint Francis in Assisi. This was not just another pilgrimage. This was my opportunity once again to confront the paradox of the Cross. To once again challenge myself on making more space for the Lord. How much less I have to say and more to do!   

"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Lk 9:23-24).

Blessed John Paul II once said of Francis. He embraced the whole truth of this paradox. The Gospel was his daily bread. He did not confine himself to reading its words, but through the expressions of the revealed text he set out to discover the One who is the Gospel itself. In fact, in Christ the divine economy is revealed in full: "losing" and "gaining" in their definitive, absolute sense. By his life Francis proclaimed and continues to proclaim today the saving word of the Gospel. It is difficult to find a saint whose message could withstand so deeply "the test of time".
Let’s pray with the “poverello” of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Crowds outside Saint Francis Basilica before the Mass this morning

Procession of Banners from different Italian municipalities. Saint Francis is the patron saint of Italy.

Tomb of Sain Francis. It could not be simpler.

One more pilgrim.

Garden in front of the Basilica

Lamp above Saint Francis' tomb. It burns all year round. A different Italian town has the opportunity to offer the oil for it.

The basilica in the back. Our brother sun in front of me.

Evening procession.  I did not even tried to get in this time!

Blessing of Saint Francis

Arrivederci Siena, Saint Catherine and Politics

The last phase of this transition has begun.  My time in Siena is up. I am done with Italian school and by now I am supposed to speak Italian. Today I am finally settled down in Casa Santa Maria in Rome where I will reside for the next three years.  The last week was full of goodbyes to the friends made and the places that I became accustomed to.

Saint Catherine was there too. On my last weekend I took advantage of some quiet time and read her letters to the civil authorities. St Catherine was God’s instrument to bring the papacy back to Rome from its time of exile in Avignon. Also, she worked hard to achieve peace among the Italian states. Therefore, her ministry involved high diplomatic and political skills. While reading, I only could think on the common, forever condition of those involved with politics and governments: corruption. As a matter of fact, there is a strike right now in Italy asking for a good government. The economic and political situation of this country is not in its best shape. Everybody complains about that. But it is not a rarity. It is hard to find people in the world who are satisfied with their government. And even harder, it is to find good leaders, presidents or kings up and down the centuries.

During my high school years, I was a “politician.” I presented my name for the student’s council elections twice. Even though I did not fulfill all the promises I made campaigning in the first time, I won it in both opportunities as the president. It was not easy going around the school halls having followers almost bullying me for not granting them their requests. I did not have power per se. I was only a student who held a representative post. However, I experienced the frustration that comes from wanting good things for all and not being able to get them. Justice was the motto. By the way, this was the experience that prompted me to go to civil law school in order to start my preparation for President of Colombia.

So bringing up the frustrations of the peoples of the world with their governments, my questions are: what would be a good solution for it? Are we eternally damn to have bad governments? Am I ever going to experience a good one, anywhere?  When we listen to the discourse of any politician, almost invariable, there is the desire of seeking the common good expressed in the rhetoric of service. In fact, the call for those who hold a public office is to serve their people, seeking the common good.

Pope Benedict, on his address to the German Parliament last week, offered a reflection about the role of politicians in the world.  In the First Book of the Kings, it is recounted that God invited the young King Solomon, on his accession to the throne, to make a request. What will the young ruler ask for at this important moment? Success – wealth – long life – destruction of his enemies? He chooses none of these things. Instead, he asks for a listening heart so that he may govern God’s people, and discern between good and evil (cf. 1 Kg 3:9). Through this story, the Bible wants to tell us what should ultimately matter for a politician. His fundamental criterion and the motivation for his work as a politician must not be success, and certainly not material gain. Politics must be a striving for justice, and hence it has to establish the fundamental preconditions for peace. Naturally a politician will seek success, as this is what opens up for him the possibility of effective political action. Yet success is subordinated to the criterion of justice, to the will to do what is right, and to the understanding of what is right. Success can also be seductive and thus can open up the path towards the falsification of what is right, towards the destruction of justice. “Without justice – what else is the State but a great band of robbers?”, as Saint Augustine once said.

To become a politician shouldn’t be a matter of academic preparation only. It is also a vocation, because it involves service. Where are the politicians of the future?  Where are the ones for the real change, the ones who will make the difference? They are in our homes! Our youth full of passion for the Lord and love of neighbor. We should encourage also them to consider politics as a vocation in life for the service of people, justice and peace.

Waiting for Rapunzel to show up

Good bye to Toscany

San Gimgniano



Ready for the catch



Bells of Siena for the evening Angelus

The Point of Taking the Discipline

In the house of St Catherine are displayed things like the stone she used as a pillow and other forms of penances. She used to fast a lot and to make big sacrifices. Those practices were common during her time in the middle ages and seem to us today rather bizarre. But even much striker for us is to know that modern saints like Pope John Paul II also used some forms of discipline, like sleeping on the wooded bare floor.

Those things do not make sense in our modern culture where the satisfaction of comfort is the goal for which we work hard. But even though I had understood the concept of taking the discipline as a way to configure ourselves with the sufferings of Christ, I could hardly explain it to make sense.

Praying vespers on Friday, I finally could figure out the point on taking the discipline. And it is not so different from St Anthony of the Desert in the early church to Blessed John Paul II in the Third millennium. The same passions, the same bodies, the same problem, the same goal. One of the intercessions says: Christ, our frail humanity is prone to fall; strengthen us through your help.  Left to itself, our nature is inclined to sin; let your love always restore it to grace.

Thomas Morton explains that the passions are like children, who left to themselves, will take over the whole house. So they need to be disciplined and corrected. On the same way the passions; otherwise the passions will dominate our lives with sin. We don’t talk about the elimination of the passions, rather of their purification and refocusing. We Christians are not dualists. We honor the body and the material world as we honor the soul and the spiritual. Remember that we are saved both in body and spirit. Look at Mary. This is the point of her Assumption.

Our frail humanity is prone to fall and left to itself, our nature is inclined to sin. We all can say it with certitude, we expert sinners. So the taking the discipline help us to refocus the energy of the passions towards the true worship of God. St Paul urges us to offer our bodies as true and living sacrifice. It helps us to empty ourselves so to have space for God.

Father Barron offers a clear example of this, for us today. Let’s go to a work out center. What we find there is people sweating and “torturing” their bodies for a great benefit: healthy bodies. And often, it is accompanied by strict diets and abstinence of a lot of goodies. What if we use it for an even greater benefit: the health of the soul!

I have been fighting laziness. I am not a morning person at all, lest a sport man. I admire all of you who are. And with this order of thoughts, I have been swimming for, at least, an hour every other day. Primarily for the benefit of my soul, uprooting laziness of my being, I’ve been gaining a healthy body.

Let’s be as prompt and smart with the matters of the spirit as we are with the matters of the world.  “Our enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion is looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5, 8-9).

Mass in St Catherine's house

Image of Blessed Pope John Paul II

25 Laps today

The Restoration of Innocence

A language teacher loves to bring on hot topics for discussion in order to create some controversy in class so students talk with passion using the language being learned. This week there was a discussion about pessimism and optimism. Each one of us had to give our own opinion on the matter. One of them made a comment on these quotes: “a pessimist is just an optimist with experience” and “a pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist.” He expanded his comments bringing up a study that showed that pessimists are realist but optimists are happier in life. I felt my happiness being challenged. To this I replied without hesitation: so, do you mean that optimists live in a fantasy? But it was not my turn to talk yet. I had a little more time to elaborate my opinion. What I said resounded over and over in my head. When it was my turn I said: “if the pessimists are realist, then I am an optimist who lives in fantasy relying on the reality of faith.” Yet, there are some that believe that faith is just wishful thinking.

Fantasy, optimism, faith; what are they but attributes of a child, aren’t they?  And a child is the best version of innocence. Isn’t it holiness the restoration of innocence? That was what Christ accomplished for us in the Paschal mystery. We sing in the Exsultet in the happy night of Easter: 

 The power of this holy night dispels all evil. Washes guilt away, restores lost innocence. Brings mourners joy; it cast out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.

Don’t we have to become like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes, says the Lord (Cf. Lk 18:17). How do I become like one? Well I was one once. How do I go back to it? Riding a Ferrari. Yes, I went back to boyhood yesterday for 2 hours. I met Alex in the language school. We have been together there since the beginning of this experience. He was kind enough to take me with him to Maranello in Emilia Romagna. There are the headquarters and museum of the Ferrari Company. He rented one and invited me to ride with him through the city and country side. Sometimes he reached 140 mph.

What is it with us men about this passion for cars?  I don’t know. I am not writing to answer that question. It is not a problem. What I know is that I felt so nervous of excitement when I started seeing Ferraris everywhere I looked. I couldn’t help myself but going back to the back yard of my house in Colombia where I had a real fantasy world of roads, tracks and model cars. I felt so boyish to the point of buying a little model.

But on our way back to Siena, Saint Paul hit me with what he says in 1 Corinthians 11-13:

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 

Well this doesn’t fit with what I experienced. Then, how do the restoration of innocence and being like a child again look like? It looks more like what St Paul says. I can’t be like a child in the sense of being immature, but in the sense of fully knowing. It may sound contradictory since we experience the loss of innocence precisely by knowing more and more about things and life. But the loss of innocence knows what is false. The world deceives us by saying that everything is gray and insipid. There are not colors and not flavors. That’s authentic hopeless pessimism. Thanks God there is red for Ferrari and yellow for orange juice. And friends, you know that there is more than that in this beautiful planet, or is it a fantasy? The restoration of innocence is to fully know the true, to know as I am fully known by my Creator.

What I experienced in Maranello, to feel a boy again, is what the Lord invites us to become. But only to the degree of being totally involved and engaged in searching Him, just as a child is engaged playing. Everything else that I really had there was a manifestation of my own vanity and my sometimes concerns with frivolity. I am just a simple, poor, sober man with the power of bringing God down to a host and some wine. What else should I ask for?

Blessed be God forever for letting me share the priesthood of Jesus Christ and for letting man being so creative with his beauty and Ferraris.



No, I am not that monk that sold it

I am the priest who rode one

I had also the privilege of Bishop Rojas visit this week. We celebrated Mass together in the chapel of the Crucifix in Saint Catherine's shrine. Sister Giussepina looks very serious about what she wants to tell the bishop. I am just atentevely "overhearing" the conversation.

Where is Silence?

Silence came up like a vital need for me this week. Learning a language obviously implies a lot of sounds, words and so on. I am listening constantly and attentively to everything around. I am repeating constantly sounds and words like a parrot and try to construct full sentences that make sense. Siena’s background also has like a soundtrack. Tourists go up and down the hilly streets, with words and sounds in all languages. There is a church or chapel almost in every corner and all with bell towers, with bells that ring always on what seems without ceasing.  Things are not quieter in my room, the TV or the radio are almost always on and when they are off, the natural noise of a roommate interrupts the second of calmness. Additionally, there is my own noise, my internal noise, heart and mind and all senses noises.

With my concern for silence in mind, I learned this week two things. First the Italian word chiacchiarare [kja-kkje’-rare] which means to talk or chat about nothing and everything. It is what is known in languages an onomatopoeic word; words associated with the sounds of what is named. For example, cuckoo, to name a bird; or sizzle to refer to what happens when something is frying or roasting. As a matter of fact, animal sounds are representing differently in each language. This is something I had fun with when I started learning English. For instance, an American rooster says cok-a’doodle-doo, while a rooster that “talks” Spanish says kikiriki, or a French kokoriko.  An Italian hen or chicken cacarea; hence, the word chiacchiarare describes a similar sound that we make while talking about nothing and everything.

The second thing that I learned was about the Academy for Silence. In order to train my ear to Italian language, I listen to podcasts about different topics. This time, it was an interview to the director of this academy in Milano. Their point is to rescue silence and train people to practice it in the midst of everyday life. It is a vital need and such an ancestral claim. All religions honor silence as the way we enter into contact with the deep of ourselves and hear God’s voice. There is where Elijah heard God:

Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah? (1Kings 19, 11-13).

But how can I tell everybody around me to shut up?! How can ask noisy tourists to be quiet in church where I am seeking refuge for at least one second of silence? How can I tell this whole town to ring the bells only once a day? In short, how can I control the sounds around me? Impossible, isn’t it? It seems like that. This is not a new topic or problem I have to deal with. This is an old concern I have had for a long time. However, I think I found a way out of it. An answer if you will. While it is true I cannot control the sounds around, it is definitely true I can control the sounds and noise I make. I start by the easy ones like TV, radio, phone, computer off. Then I move on to a more difficult one, the use of words. How much do I really need to talk? I “budge” myself with words. No in the sense that I will give myself, let’s say, 500 words to speak. It will be annoying and inconvenient. I mean it in the sense of being attentive to the extend and quality of my conversations. One of the roots of our common problems is our degradation and falsification of the word given. I say something today and tomorrow I will deny or correct it. In other terms, the misuse of words leads me to lie. We all need to learn to talk from a profundity. The word in which I explain myself can’t be a word for lying. It has to come from the silence that gives truth to my words.

And finally, I move to the most complicated level of the noise and sounds I produce; the sounds of my mind and senses. It produces the deepest silence because it is in the inner self where we hear God’s voice like the light breeze.  While I know it is impossible to not think of anything even for a second, the mind is always working, it is possible to shut down those thoughts by directing them to our own interiority. Try to train yourself on these three steps. Just spend at least one minute or 90 seconds daily and you will notice significant progress in a short time.  When one archives the last step, any noise around won’t bother you as it used to be. However, this practice will prompt you to seek places and situations where you really will experience external silence as well.