“Miss Cintorino, you have so many tabs open! It’s a bit stressful!” one of my students announced in class one day. She wasn’t wrong. My browser window, projected onto the board for my students to see, had 15 tabs open, most needed for the day’s classes. After I exclaimed that I wished there were a better way to organize them, my student politely informed me that I could create folders for my tabs — one folder for each of my classes. Within two minutes my plentiful tabs were reduced to four, resulting in a neater, and much less distracting, browser window.
At the heart of my student’s plea was the longing for silence. This may seem strange, for we normally associate silence with refraining from speaking or listening to noise. But silence also has an interior aspect: It entails quieting our minds, hearts, imagination and will. My student, though externally engaged during class, was internally distracted by the noise facing her — the plethora of window tabs–and it prevented her from fully focusing on the lesson.
We too are constantly bombarded by noise that inhibits us from fully entering into the present moment and experiencing rest. Clamor surrounds us at home and at work. We visit our favorite news and social media sites frequently. We listen to music, the news, audiobooks and podcasts as we exercise, commute and complete chores. Our days are filled with a constant stream of chatter and information, and we form thousands of judgments and opinions daily. Scientists estimate that we process up to 74 gigabytes of information daily — the equivalent of watching 16 movies. By the day’s end, we find our minds swirling with information, thirsting for a respite.
We perhaps experience this most during Advent, the world’s busiest commercial season, when it is easy to become lost in a plethora of Christmas music, preparations and festive engagements. In the midst of this activity, the Church calls us to a watchful silence. Here are three suggestions for how to find rest and encounter God in this season of preparation.
1. Limit exterior noise
Authentic silence requires that we limit exterior noise and build time for stillness into our day. This might look like getting up 15 minutes before everyone else; forgoing the radio, podcast or audiobook during the morning commute; refraining from unnecessary phone calls or idle chatter, or skipping an evening show.
Consider accomplishing at least one daily activity in silence. Pick a chore, a time of the day or a hobby — folding the laundry, washing the dishes, driving, cooking — to complete quietly. Though the silence may be uncomfortable at first, it prepares us to be internally still.
2. Cultivate leisure
Internal silence requires attentiveness and a peaceful disposition of spirit, which we acquire by cultivating leisure. We live in a fast-paced society, and we often adapt to it by rushing and multitasking, adding to our internal din. It takes longer to quiet our minds and becomes more difficult to find the stillness of God as we hectically breeze through our day. Cultivating silence requires purposely “uni-tasking” and slowing down: developing a slower pace in the grocery store, maintaining a spirit of peace when sitting in traffic, leisurely washing the dishes, or taking a few moments to read a book or walk around the neighborhood.
Slowing the body slows the mind, and we will find ourselves more rooted and focused in the present. We notice and appreciate the swallow’s song, the beauty of the sky and the smile of a stranger. We better perceive the needs of others around us and come to their aid more readily. We are more attentive to God’s promptings. This leads to vigilance.
3. Be vigilant
At first, any attempt at silence will be met with great internal noise: Our imagination will activate, we will strike up conversations with ourselves, recall fond memories, make plans for dinner. To be truly silent and encounter God, our imagination, mind, memory and will must be still.
This requires us to exercise vigilance in our lives, limiting and carefully selecting what enters into our sense experience, for our sense experience influences our thoughts, which in turn shape our desires. Our constant access to information feeds our internal noise and bars us from recognizing God’s action, so we need to set limits to what we ingest. Intermittently silencing our phones, abstaining from the news and limiting social media use helps guard our faculties.
We can then intentionally cultivate images of God, Mary, the angels and the saints, recalling them frequently and transforming our interior dialogues to conversations with them. This allows us to “pray at all times” (Eph 6:18), and disposes us to recollection and receptivity to God’s graces throughout the day. Decorating our homes and work spaces with sacred art or quotes from Scripture or the saints aids this process as they naturally turn our thoughts heavenward, quiet our minds and dispose us to meet God in prayer.
Though finding silence in the modern world is not easy, this Advent we can slowly become a people of silence. In so doing, we can encounter God and find rest even throughout our busiest days.
