Ave Maria! Last Wednesday at his general audience, Pope Benedict XVI concluded his series of reflections on the prayer of Jesus. The Holy Father considered the theme of Jesus' silence, "which is so important in our relationship with God." Referring to his Exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict reminds us that "The great patristic tradition teaches us that the mysteries of Christ all involve silence. Only in silence can the word of God find a home in us, as it did in Mary, woman of the word and, inseparably, woman of silence (n. 21)." The fruits of such silence are many and abundant for, as the Holy Father notes, "Silence is capable of excavating an interior space in our inmost depths so that God may abide there, so that his Word may remain in us, so that love for him may be rooted in our minds and in our hearts and animate our lives."
This reflection of Pope Benedict XVI is a rich one. It is particularly appropriate during our Lenten journey as we walk with Jesus in his Passion and Death, where he "reaches the heights of the depth of his prayer to the Father... when he pronounces his supreme 'yes' to the plan of God and reveals how the human will finds its fulfillment precisely in adhering fully to the divine will, rather than the opposite."
Dear Jesus and Mary, teach me the wisdom and the love of your silence before the Father of mercies. Amen!
If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved,
in silence and in hope shall your strength be.
~Isaiah 30:15
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