The Superior of Annecy, Mother Marie Therese, reflects on silence: Some excerpts:
June 09, 2020
In a commentary on the book of Job, entitled: “We have been made small in your midst “, St Gregory the Great said that … humility being the mistress of all virtues, he endeavors to recommend by his words and to manifest by his life, in order to inculcate this in the disciples by conduct even more than by the speech.
St Francis de Sales says: “Be what you are and be it well …” He does not say: speak well and do what you want. No!
From this introduction, this word which testifies not through words but through life, I
am asked a question about silence. I often spoke to you about it, I often ask myself but do I live it, Mother Marie-Thérèse? What testimony do I give of my silence in the community? When often I am stopped in the cloister, by a question, a request, by several sisters waiting, I fee as on a plank. . As for leaving an Office, two sisters
immediately retire to the stairs to speak usefully. I have no doubt, when I get to the kitchen and
I find sisters talking, or at the exit of the refectory, I tell myself that we must stop and
reflect on the value of monastic silence. What does silence do to me? what does it demand of me?
• It requires a check so – I take a step back – I think if it can wait, I wait for the time
that I foresee what I must do and I take the information in due time. It organizes me. . ·
• It sends me back to myself, to my responsibility – for which I take the means, I
plan. Let us think of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins.
• It puts things, events, situations into perspective. It allows us to look calmly,
it does not dramatize. It allows us to understand, to manage difficulties, without eagerness,
with optimism. We know how to wait, which is contrary to our time when everything has to go fast and where
you have to know everything.
• It asks me to listen attentively
• It removes unhealthy curiosity – Silence asks me to renounce the desire to want everything, to know everything, to take care of what does not concern me – to judge what I see – to compare myself to others.
It goes through the gaze – It goes through the gaze which is very important in silence. There are
looks of anger, accusing looks, looks that lack charity when they
agree to judge the action others,when they disagree on something which is done and which one does not approve. we talk about it and we criticize
How to live in silence?
We had a great experience on the day of lectio Divina. We were gathered in the
word of God, in prayer, directed only towards him, bearers of peace,
How to continue this experience? The heart is the source of silence, it is the seat of love.
It is from it that I draw the love I need to live silence because, without love, humanly, it is
impossible.
The Holy Spirit that we have just celebrated at Pentecost, this Spirit that prays in us from our
baptism makes no noise, it opens us to the desire of God and inspires us with the Word that must be spoken.
The word must arise from our silence and is the bearer of love, of light, it is the messenger of
truth. A psalm says: “Take care of my lips Lord, watch over the threshold of my mouth, do not
do not let my heart tilt towards evil nor become accomplice of the wicked. .. “
There is nothing we can do about ourselves. With the Spirit, good will and perseverance, we
can control our words, our gaze, our curiosity, … It is a work on ourselves
of each instant that builds the community, a community where charity radiates. When
I hear it said: “In such a community there are tensions, there are fears”, we should ask the
question: “Is there silence? When there is tension, is it not because, in silence,
lack of charity in words, jealousy is shared and destroys the unity of the community?
Silence must be fueled. It has its source in prayer, in Offices, in the Eucharist,
then it is inhabited by a presence that is enough for us, a presence of God that empties us of ourselves
and makes us available to the next. Work is not an obstacle! The eagerness prevents silence from inhabiting our body. Running in a cloister should not be done.
Where I make arrangements to be on time or if I’m late regardless of the
cause, I am humble. So silence keeps us in humility, it is a source of peace.
I will end with a short text from Saint Paul VI: lesson in silence from Nazareth
0 silence of Nazareth, teach us recollection, interiority, the disposition to listen to
good inspirations and the words of true masters; teach us the value of preparations, of
the study, of meditation, of personal and interior life, of the prayer that God alone sees in secret.
I leave this chapter to your meditation, your responsibility, the mission entrusted by God to
each of us by the call to the contemplative life. You know it: St. Jeanne de Chantal says: “a
monastery where silence is lived greatly feels holiness. “