Foreigner

If you say Foreigner to me, I think of an 80s band. And in searching for a link to add to this blog, I realize that they are hot yet again. As I recognize some of the song titles that play on my daughters' ipods.

But that isn't the foreigner I thinking about. The elephant in the room that has my attention is silence. Teaching last night and I asked the youth to just sit and listen. To be in silence. To let their minds slow down and their thoughts stop reeling. We were talking about prayer. My point being prayer is a conversation -- a two way street. And sometimes you have to stop and listen.

Thirty seconds went by before the giggling commenced. I knew in my heart of hearts, that their world was so full of sensory overload that this evening, a moment of silence was an impossibility. And I wasn't surprised.

I went to Adoration last month and during the entire evening, there was not one moment of silence. Even while the speaker spoke, there was music playing in the background. It was suppose to be "fluff out" her subject. But instead, the music on, the speaker not miked -- her words were lost to the strains.

And during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a locally famous Catholic rock band played and sang. It's not your grandmother's Adoration. So maybe it's for those who need to be surrounded by sound. And it's not that I don't like music, (Lord knows I can rock out with the best of them.), but sometimes silence makes a better point. I suspect, like all of life, there is a balance to be struck.