Bishop Gilbert of Aberdeen recently devoted a
Pastoral Letter to the theme of silence. Quoting Kierkegaard, he began by explaining why silence is important, and then moved on to offer some practical advice:
A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’
‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.
I was heartened to read the good Bishop's letter because it says something that I have tried to convey in my own parish. If people talk loudly in conversation after Mass, they prevent other people from praying. There are
plenty of places to talk - in England you don't even have to be quiet in the public library nowadays - but there are few places where people can bring their joys and sorrows in silence before the Lord.
7 comments:
I'm afraid it would take a great deal more than a gentle letter like this to effect silence in my parish, at least at the Novus Ordo Masses.
An excellent pastoral letter. "Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards." And often during it. Frequently, before the final blessing, I have heard priests say "Please leave the church quietly so as not to disturb others at prayer." This generally goes unheeded. The worst offenders, I have found, are the old ladies who spend a lot of time in the church. A case of familiarity breeding contempt?
Older people sometimes talk more loudly because of hearing loss; but they are usually more respectful of a priest encouraging people to be quiet. The worst offenders are "the usual suspects" who feel that they should "stand up for Vatican II" and not allow the priest to tell them what to do.
One of the most important effects of a Bishop's letter is that parish priests can point to the fact that the encouragement of silence is not simply a personal preference or foible.
Fr Tim: I do realise that hearing loss can be a cause of loud talking. My point was that they shouldn't be talking at all. As you said yourself there are plenty of places where we can talk but not many where we can be silent. In my parish there are notices in the porch reminding people of whose presence they are entering and enjoining them to maintain a respectful silence. Alas, these too are largely ignored.
A church in Clifton Diocese, which I used to attend, at one time had a notice in the porch regarding silence. At some stage it disappeared, probably parochial council. I always go to Mass earlier than the advertised time, in order to collect myself, chatter is most disturbing. Attending an TLM, those exiting the earlier NOM treat us with disdain and even discuss business when it is clear one is reading a Missal in preparation.
Noise is a plague.
Crux - You are quite right, of course. Once, when two elderly ladies were about ten minutes into their conversation before daily Mass and I went into the sacristy to vest, I suggested to the sacristan that she take them out some tea and biscuits. My sacristan laughingly scolded me for being unkind :-)
The way Catholics often act in churches, it's as though He wasn't there.
We'd show a lot more respect to the King of Belgium than we show to the King of the Universe.
"Et dicit eis: Scriptum est: Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur...." - Matthew 21:13
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