Cultivate Silence

By James Krueger, husband of Kathryn Hylden Krueger '99

Last week I stumbled upon a piece of writing which asked as its opening, a question: How wonderful would it be to hear Beethoven's 5th symphony for the first time?

But the author, an accomplished musician himself, muses about how our expectations as listeners have changed over the last couple of centuries. He imagines a villager from outside Vienna coming to hear Beethoven's 5th for the first time, writing:

"The only music that is possible for you, or anyone in the world, to hear is live, face-to-face. That makes life pretty quiet. The cows low in the field on the hill, the goldfinches chirp in the linden tree in front of your house, the easy flow of the brook gurgles behind it. At night, sometimes you can hear loud talk from the tavern on the corner, but otherwise from dusk until dawn life is essentially silent."

Now let's be quiet for a moment. What do you hear?

Here is what the author says later on in the piece and let's compare with our own experience:

"Now, let us jump forward 200 years and compare our perception of classical music relative to the world around us now. Today, noise is our constant companion. Mechanical noise, industrial noise, crowd noise, workplace noise, iPods, YouTube, television, radio, you-name-it-noise. Noise from cars, buses, planes, trains, subways. Noise disguised as music surrounds us from elevators to supermarkets to sports stadiums in decibel levels corrosive to our hearing, tranquility, and mental well-being. Noise is non-stop."

Our world is full of noise. Parallel to this, our lives are also busy, full of work, whether this be resume building activities, our academic or athletic work, the rat race, what have you. And so much of this is good. But things can feel frenetic, on the noise front and on the busyness front. For all the talk of how soothing music can be, and how instantly we can have it played for us—as a society we are more anxious and depressed than ever. God longs to lift us up!

I want to encourage us this week to be more silent and attentive in our prayer, that we may hear God's voice. This is a challenge, and it may surprise you to learn it is one that takes some effort. Emptying oneself always does. St. Jane encourages us to hear God's voice, we must strive to quiet ourselves and our own cacophony and listen for it.

In all seriousness, this could save your life. I challenge you today to be attentive to prayer and to cultivate some silence this evening in which you can empty yourself before the Lord and listen.

Prayer of St. Francis de Sales

Lord, I am yours, and I must belong to no one but you.

My soul is yours and must live only by you.

My will is yours, and must love only for you.

I must love you as my first cause, since I am from you.

I must love you as my end and rest, since I am for you.

I must love you more than my own being, since my being subsists by you.

I must love you more than myself, since I am all yours and all in you.