Holy Cross Talking

Oh, what babble this year brings forth.

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: "Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and should one full of talk be vindicated? Should your babble put others to silence, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? For you say, 'My conduct is pure, and I am clean in God's sight.' - Job 11:1-4

In ten weeks the Presidential Campaign will come to an end when we all go to the polls and vote.

Hallelujah!

But I assure you, the babble that goes with it will continue.  We will not escape it so easily, for we love to complain.

We complain about the choices we have and yet we take a stand in support of one and against another, ignoring the faults and flaws that go along with our selection.

We immerse ourselves in the cross-talk and become part of the babble-making that goes along with it.
Over the last three days, I immersed myself in babble-avoidance.  I didn't intend to, nor did I look at it that way when I began, but because our training program for Education for Ministry was held at Holy Cross Monastery, I had to practice the difficult art of observing silence from bedtime until after breakfast.

It is amazing how long it takes babble to filter out of one's head, even when one is intentionally sending it away.

Silence is truly golden, and equally elusive.

The silent overnight into morning was not as hard as I make it sound, though.  What was harder than stilling the voices in my head and being at peace when no one was talking, was to try to do that when discussion and conversation were in full swing.

As mentors, we pride ourselves on our ability to listen and not instruct, but when we get a whole bunch of us in a room and we throw in a controversial topic, the noise in our heads becomes deafening as we await our turn to share our thoughts.

So, we turn to Job and the challenge before him.  Can he silence the babble in his head and listen for God's voice?

Can we?

One thing I learned over the past three days of training is that I need to continue to practice bathing myself in the silence of Holy Cross, and not just when I am not talking, but when I am.

Listening intently to what is being said and what is not said might help me hear with the ear of the speaker not with the eye of the opponent.

I know it will not be easy to do, and I will fail miserably at first, but I still have ten weeks to practice, as well as a whole lot more (I hope) to get it right.

More to come...