THE POWER OF SILENCE - Notes - PART A3 - MARY AND MARTHA

I purchased The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah back in 2017. Even after eight years, its pages - filled with profound wisdom - still wait to be fully read and understood.

I am not sure I will ever truly finish the book, let alone grasp the depth of each insight it offers.

Still, I hope that by taking notes and organizing them thoughtfully, I might begin to better comprehend and absorb the treasures it contains.

I am sharing these notes here, and I hope that the gems noted down may bless you as much as they continue to bless me.

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THE POWER OF SILENCE - NOTES

PART A - SILENCE VERSUS THE WORLD'S NOISE

(A3) Mary and Martha

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The episode of Jesus' visit to the home of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) illustrates the priceless character of silence in everyday life.  

Here Jesus sketch the outlines of a spiritual pedagogy:  we should always make sure to be Mary before becoming Martha.   

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Jesus teaches the importance of calming and quieting the soul (Ps 131:2) so as to listen to one's heart.

He invites us to stop so as to return to our hearts, the place of true welcome and the dwelling place of God's silent tenderness.

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All activities must be preceded by an intense life of prayer, contemplation, seeking and listening to God's will.  

We must resist the temptation by trying "to be" before trying "to do".  

Man can encounter God in truth only in silence and solitude, both interior and exterior.

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We run the danger of being preoccupied with worldly business and concerns if we neglect the interior life, prayer, the daily face-to-face encounter with God.

We need to advance in humility and to cultivate carefully the sacred dimension of our interior life by constantly seeking to see the face of God in prayer, meditation, contemplation, and asceticism.

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St Gregory the Great wrote in a letter to Theoctista, sister of the Byzantine Emperor then:

"I have lost the profound joys of my peace and quiet, and I seem to have risen externally, while falling internally.....there are many who know how to control external successes in such a way that they in no way collapse internally because of them."

St Gregory underscores the conflict he was experiencing - he wanted to harmonise the contemplative life and the active life.  

The deep tension between silence and his new temporal duties could be resolved only by intensifying his interior life and an intimate relationship with God.

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St Bruno so beautifully wrote, in a letter to Raoul le Verd...

"...(in the) silence and solitude of the desert, here men of strong will can enter into themselves, and remain there as much as they like, diligently cultivating the seeds of virtue and eating the fruits of paradise with joy.  

Here they can acquire the eye that wounds the Bridegroom with love, by the limpidity of its gaze, and whose purity allows them to see God himself.  

Here they can observe a busy leisure and rest in quiet activity.

Here also God crowns  his athletes for their stern struggle with the hoped-for reward: a peace unknown to the world and joy in the Holy Spirit.

                                                                                                                                             

This life is the best part chosen by Mary, never to be taken from her. 

If only a love like this could take possession of us.  

Immediately, all the glory in the world would seem like so much dirt, whatever the smooth words and false attractions the world offered to deceive us.  

Wealth and it concomitant anxieties we would cast off without a thought, as a burden to the freedom of the spirit.  

What could be more perverted, more reckless and contrary to nature and right order, than to love the creature more than the Creator.  

What passes away more than what lasts for ever, or to seek rather the goods of earth than those of heaven?  ....

What other good can compare with God?  What other good is there besides God? 

Hence, the soul that has attained some degree of holiness and has experienced in some small measure the incomparable loveliness, beauty and splendour of this good, is set on fire with love and cries out: 

 "My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life; when shall I enter and see the face of God?" (Ps 41/42:2)

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