silence

If there is one thing that tends to "stand out" to visitors in a Religious house is the atmosphere of silence. This becomes more obvious, unfortunately, as each year passes since the world seems to be getting "louder and louder" by the moment. The mind is constantly being filled with unholy things - all of which take the soul away from God and chain it ever more firmly to things of this world.

Modern man fails to see that the sound of Our Lord's Voice may be drowned out by the blare of the television or the constant playing of the radio. Man seems to need constant "background noise", having the television or radio echoing in the back of his mind even if he is not paying much attention to it. This is nothing new, but it is definitely something that the Religious wants to avoid. These things cause an abundance of distractions to keep him from Our Lord. Thus, the Religious values silence.

Silence is truly the first step toward intimacy with God. The inspirations of the Holy Ghost come to us throughout our day. Silence helps us to be aware of this constant presence, and to allow it to take root in our souls. Silence frees us to hear and respond to the Master's Voice instantly, without having to turn off distractions that could hinder our hearing of it. A period of silence may change the quality of the words we do speak. Silence is not just a negative - the absence of noise, rather it is a positive attention to the presence of God, an openness to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost.

The Religious embraces silence as a first step simply to create a space in which he can place himself in the Presence of God. Suddenly, silence is not the absence of noise, but is the presence of Wisdom Incarnate Whose advent he awaits with eager longing. In all of his time spent in community life, the Religious enjoys those moments of quiet in which he can carry out his work, study, prayer, in the presence of God, without the demand of having to share his thoughts with anybody else. Likewise, he learns to respect the silence of his fellow Religious, not wanting to distract them in their duties since they are entitled to the same presence of God as he.

The Religious soon comes to value this spirit of silence. There is no longer a "need" to listen to that talk show host or the music that blasts from the car radio. He understands that he does not need to listen to the news for the third or fourth time in the day. Religious life "turns off that background noise" and creates an atmosphere of silence.

Each new arrival to Religious life will be honest with you: Silence is not easy at first. Established periods of silence throughout the day demand that new habits be formed and old ones let go. He may miss the noise and experience silence as intolerable at first. When he comes to grips with the imposed external silence of Religious life, he quickly discovers that interior silence is as a wonderful opportunity to get close of God. The insistent thoughts and worries that hounded him in the world suddenly fall away and he can leave all his intentions at the feet of the Master, Who is most anxious to spend this time with His consecrated one.

In order to find the strength in prayer so as to carry out faithfully an active apostolate, we live, to the greatest extent possible, a contemplative community life. As an aid to mortifying our speech and hearing, and in order to dispose ourselves to the contemplation of things divine, we observe and foster an atmosphere of silence within the all the houses of the Society.

Strict silence is to be observed in the chapel and sacristy and other designated parts of the house. We observe Grand Silence, beginning at Compline and ending the following morning after Mass. During this time, only what is absolutely necessary is to be spoken. Throughout the day, outside periods of Grand Silence and Recreation, we maintain Relative Silence, speaking when necessary and, then, in a low tone of voice. The purpose of observing silence within the houses of the Society is to foster a life of prayer, so essential to the religious vocation, and so as not to disrupt our confreres’ time of study or prayer.

To that end: