Sr Joan writes...
Silence is a cornerstone of ... spiritual development but the goal of monastic silence is not non-talking. The goal ... is respect for others, a sense of place, a spirit of peace.
Benedictine spirituality forms us to listen ... for the voice of God. Benedictine spirituality forms us to know our place in the world. When we refuse to give place to others, when we consume all the space of our worlds with our own sounds and our own truths and our own wisdom and our own ideas, there is no room for anyone else's ideas.
Benedictine spirituality is a builder of human community. When talk is unrestrained, when gossip becomes the food of the soul, then the destruction of others can't be far behind. When talk is loud and boisterous, when we make light of everything, when nothing is spared the raillery of a joke, the seriousness of all of life is at stake and our spirits wither from a lack of beauty and substance.
Grow in the silence.
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