Nicolas Diat

Found this brilliant quote on Instagram...

“Our world no longer hears God because it is constantly speaking, at a devastating speed and volume, in order to say nothing.

“Modern civilization does not know how to be quiet. It holds forth in an unending monologue. Postmodern society rejects the past and looks at the present as a cheap consumer object; it pictures the future in terms of an almost obsessive progress. Its dream, which has become a sad reality, will have been to lock silence away in a damp, dark dungeon.

“Thus there is a dictatorship of speech, a dictatorship of verbal emphasis. In this theater of shadows, nothing is left but a purulent wound of mechanical words, without perspective, without truth, and without foundation. Quite often “truth” is nothing more than the pure and misleading creation of the media, corroborated by fabricated images and testimonies. When that happens, the word of God fades away, inaccessible and inaudible. Postmodernity is an ongoing offense and aggression against the divine silence.

“From morning to evening, from evening to morning, silence no longer has any place at all; the noise tries to prevent God himself from speaking. In this hell of noise, man disintegrates and is lost; he is broken up into countless worries, fantasies, and fears. In order to get out of these depressing tunnels, he desperately awaits noise so that it will bring him a few consolations.

“Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer. The tragedy of our world is never better summed up than in the fury of senseless noise that stubbornly hates silence.

“This age detests the things that silence brings us to: encounter, wonder, and kneeling before God. Even in the schools, silence has disappeared. And yet how can anyone study in the midst of noise? How can you read in noise? How can you train your intellect in noise? How can you structure your thought and the contours of your interior being in noise? How can you be open to the mystery of God, to spiritual values, and to our human greatness in continual turmoil?

“Contemplative silence is a fragile little flame in the middle of a raging ocean.”

The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise

By Cardinal Robert Sarah… (mehr)

My four-star, rather than five-star, rating is mainly due to the halting quality of the translation, which perhaps could not be avoided. It probably flows better in the original French. Still, this is a beautiful book that feels like a retreat in itself, time well spent with those in religious houses who have died and those who remember the deaths, peaceful and otherwise, of their beloved confreres. Is death the visit of the Grim Reaper or the gentle arrival of Our Lord, Our Lady, and/or saints and angels to peacefully gather the soul of the brother? Is death to be feared or welcomed, perhaps as a warm bus picking one up along a snowy road? The answers are varied, but death in the context of vowed religious life has much to teach us who strive out in the world and tend to view death as at least a little tragic. Well worth reading. As one of the late monks had said, "I'm not waiting for death; I'm waiting for Life."… (mehr)

ENGLISH: A good book that delves us into the mystery of silence. The Cardinal is a disciple of Benedict XVI, a clear reference in current theology. There is talk of true silence, that of the soul, which has little to do with physical silence or that of oriental techniques. It is the silence of love, which is much deeper. This is Christian silence. Words are not enough. He is the one with a mother when he listens to his son or when you accompany a sick friend in the hospital. The Cardinal gives guidelines to achieve this silence, always from the Christian orbit. Describe the difficulties in reaching him in today's society.

Review in Spanish at this blog post.

ESPAÑOL: Un buen libro que nos adentra en el misterio del silencio. El Cardenal es discípulo de Benedicto XVI, claro referente en la teología actual. Se habla del verdadero silencio, el del alma, que poco tiene que ver con el silencio físico o el de las técnicas orientales. Es el silencio del amor, que es mucho más profundo. Esto es el silencio cristiano. Las palabras no bastan. Es el que tiene una madre cuando escucha a su hijo o cuando acompañas en el hospital a un amigo enfermo. El Cardenal da pautas para conseguir este silencio, siempre desde la órbita cristiana. Describe las dificultades para llegar a él en la sociedad actual.

Más detalles en esta entrada de mi blog.
… (mehr)