Last Sunday we
received 6 inches of snow, and when Sr. Barbara Smith returned from a sledding excursion,
she marveled, “It’s so quiet out there!” This quietude wasn’t in her
imagination; fresh snow absorbs sound, because the trapped air between
snowflakes weakens sound waves.
Unless we live
in a snow globe, we can’t rely on fresh snowfalls to quiet our world. However,
we all have access to volume control buttons that allow us to mute or turn off
our televisions, stereos, and computers. Most of us have access to a bedroom or
study where we can close the door to outside distractions. Even the smallest
town has a park, cemetery, church, or library where we can find blessed silence
and solitude.
One of the joys
of Advent and Christmas is beautiful music, but we must make space for the
silence out of which music is born. Similarly, if we truly wish to listen and
incline the ear of our hearts, we must place ourselves in the silence out of
which God’s quiet voice will issue.
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