I’ve been studying the Blessed Mother quite a bit in the last few years. I feel that I have a good relationship with her but I also feel like I need to know more, you know what others think of her. Even though I feel as though I know her well I don’t feel that I have the words to influence others to have a relationship with her.
I’ve told you before how she came to me, how she and I became so close. Let’s just say that my mother introduced her to me after my mother died. I was looking for a place to talk to Mom and she led me to the grotto in Fancy Farm. It wasn’t long until I was talking to Mary as well as to my mother. Then it was just to Mary, which works for me. As mothers go, she’s the best.
There are those who talk about the life of Mary. There’s not a lot in the Bible about her but she is always there. But when Simeon talks about the piercings in Mary’s heart and how she holds everything in her heart, that’s a place that I pay attention.
There are things that have happened to me as a mother. I feel the pinch in my heart. Or maybe it’s the sting of an insult. Mary didn’t have anyone to talk with about these piercings. I’m sure she was able to talk with Joseph but if he was anything like Jimmy I’m sure Mary would have just left all of this in her heart rather than to have Joseph give his opinion that she might not agree with. I’m sure Mary had a direct line to the Holy Spirit as we all do but sometimes those things hurt more when we repeat them. Sometimes it’s better to keep those things in the silence of your heart.
Which brings me back to Sacred Silence. We don’t get enough of that in our lives, do we? It seems that there is noise everywhere. But sometimes you have to surround yourself with noise in order to be able to listen to the silence. I have a lot of music that I listen to so that I can hear what’s in my mind, or my heart. After all these years of sleeping with the TV on I have started listening to podcasts when I’m away from home. I’m asleep within minutes. I wake up in the middle o the night and turn it off. Those days I usually oversleep because the TV doesn’t wake me up.
Another place I can find Sacred Silence is in the bathtub. I love the bathtub. I can solve all the problems of the world in there. And if I stay out of my head then I can hear what I’m being told. But I can hear what I’m being told at other times too. Sometimes I think I’m getting smacked up the head. It’s like I have to sit up and pay attention because someone wants my attention.
Trying to be silence is really hard for me. I should have worked for a radio station, they never want dead air space. But silence is different than dead air. During silence you are communicating. It is probably one of the most beautiful (and sacred) forms of communication. But as I get older I have come to appreciate silence like no other time in my life. Sometimes I like to just be in my head and hear nothing or only the things that I need to hear.
So, it might not be that I’m ignoring you. It could be that I’m listening to someone else.
Thanks to Father Darrell Venters for bringing this up in his sermon today.