By Pat Haggerty

If you are like me, your email inbox is often over-stuffed.  Like our traditional mailboxes stuffed with ads, flyers and donation requests, we find ourselves in the same position with emails.  It’s not too difficult for me to exceed over 150 emails!  I want to make sure they are not important, or worth saving, before I delete them.  One such email was from a health newsletter that questioned, “Is silence dangerous to your health?”

I didn’t hesitate deleting that one because I already knew the answer.  Silence is a gift.  The young parent longs for moments of silence after spending time with his or her noisy, but loving, little ones.  The teacher, though enjoying the excitement of a lively classroom, looks forward to the quiet of a free period.  The accountant needs some moments of quiet after a hectic meeting in the office.

We all long for moments of quiet at different points in our lives and for different reasons.  However, do we ever strive for that quiet time---for that silence---in which to find God?  It may not be easy to carve out some time just to sit with our Lord, but it is necessary.  Like a daily vitamin, we need it to grow in our relationship with our Redeemer.  Lent is the perfect time for us to develop such a routine of silence.

In some ways, silence goes against our nature.  We are bombarded with everyday noises:  music as we drive, the television voices as background, even the beeps of our “smart” phones alerting us to messages.  We can’t miss any of those, that’s for sure!  Or, can we?

Surprisingly, silence can be refreshing and rejuvenating.  More importantly, looking for that silence to find God is imperative.  Monastics know the value of silence, and they learn from it every day.  One need not follow a monastic lifestyle to find beauty in silence.  We can make adaptations to our own daily schedules to create a niche for silence.  It may be finding silence in our hearts for only a few moments.  It may be spending twenty minutes at the beginning of our day to commune with our God.  It may be as simple as turning off the radio on our drive to work to find God in our CRV.

The first verse of the David Haas song, “You Are Mine,” is a beautiful reminder of how we can find God and He can find us in silence:

“I will come to you in the silence; I will lift you from all your fear.  You will hear my voice; I claim you as my choice, be still and know I am here.”

Give the Lord the chance to come to you in your silence!