Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
Matthew 6:7-8
I opened the scripture texts for today and stopped at this admonishment to the disciples. In my heart, this command resonates like a siren.
With no interest in getting enmeshed in a the various translations of the Roman Missal, I am stepping back to look at the broad landscape of worship. These ideas are evoked both by my experience and by the many, varied feedback I have received in the short, few posts made to date.
Words, words, words. These shape the worship of the faithful. In the Roman rite and in the varied rites of the Reformation, the emphasis on words is deafening. This is in contrast to an emphasis on the Logos. Prayers rattled by clergy and faithful cloud the room with fog. Cumbersome, uninspired constructions dull the senses of the assembly. Try as I will, it is often difficult to follow a prayer from beginning to end. Multiple, often competing images, distract me. Offensive allusions shock me as the bad grammar bemuses me.
It is in this numbing experience we find the answer to the question my friends and I often ponder, “How did the young people of today find and connect with Eucharistic adoration? “ They found it because they are looking for quiet. They found it because they know, as well all do, that the essence of relationship is the ability to sit quietly in a room with your friends and have the courage to be.
From their silence arises an expression of an ageless truth; from the quiet rises their song. It is music that comes from being broken open by Logos in the frightening safety of their silence. Their melody emerges from the deep river of the collective being as community with the trust that only silence fosters. They sing what they believe, simply and robustly.
I am not advocating a rejection of a community expression of faith in active, full participation. In fact, I am searching for a deeper level of richness in this experience. Integrating silence, alone or shared, is required to provide balance. I am longing for words selected for their poetry, rich in meaning to those that hear them. It is these words that supports the richness of reflection in that silence. These words eliminate babble. I hope for those times when the Liturgy of the Word is more than a collection of words. When the babble of convoluted prayer formulae ends.
The balance of carefully crafted words and silence prepares us for our robust expression of Eucharistic thanksgiving. This is our opportunity to reclaim what the young people have learned on their own - it is good to sit with those you love and listen to the musing of the Spirit. Silence give voice to our encounter with the Spirit and propelled by the Spirit to give robust praise, simply and joyfully.
“Stilled and Quiet is My Soul” by S. Sister Toolan , RSM, is a simple reminder of this call to contemplation. Lent continues to call us to that cold, brisk place where we are taught to pray.
I apologize for the poor fidelity of the recording.
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