Some people think we take a vow of silence but we don't. We are trained to have a deep respect for both speech and silence. The quality of speech and silence impact our lives more than we might realize. We do have times when we refrain completely from speech. This is from after Compline until after Mass the next day; in other words from 7:30 PM until 8:00 AM. Also, certain days are fully set aside for silence and prayer. Unless we have silent spaces in our lives we can't really know who we are and who Jesus is. This morning I was reading from an Advent commentary with selected writings from Caryll Houselander. She writes about how we can dread space and silence in our life and how we fill it with useless things. She suggests that we:"sift and sort out everything that is not essential and that fills up space and silence in us and discover what sort of shape this emptiness in us is. From this we shall learn what sort of purpose God has for us. In what way are we to fulfill the work of giving Christ life in us?" This is from her book The Reed of God which is a wonderful book to read during Advent.

Tomorrow, the second Sunday of Advent we will have a day of recollection, which we do once a month. It is a day of silence and prayer and we have adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day. We love these days because it gives us time 'to sift and sort' and hear more clearly what God is speaking to us.

Sister Maggie