Page 80 - Yggdrasil 2021

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ wrote, "Without silence [there is] no purity of heart, no real devotion to the Holy Spirit, no real teaching from God who cannot make His still, small voice heard in the talkative soul.”
Ifwe learn to cultivate silence, not as an absence of sound, but as the habit that allows our minds' eyes to open to the wisdom and wonder of all that we otherwise mask with noise, we can understand Mother Stuart's words.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta shared Mother Stuart's belief in silence as the language ofthe soul. She said, "We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. G od is the friend o f silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls."