Communicators Invited to Advent Silence
The president of the Vatican's media council is inviting social communicators to take this time of Advent to be silent.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said this in a message to communicators of Latin America on the occasion of last Sunday's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
An encounter with the Lord is multi-faceted, Archbishop Celli proposed: It is both personal and communal, arising both in solitude and in the liturgy and family
"I invite you to live moments of silence during these days of Advent, to hear Jesus' voice who speaks to our heart. Holding Mary's hand, let us meet with him without haste, as he always awaits us!"
"Silence," he said, "is like a blank screen on which we can project the film of our daily life to see it clearly. If we project it on a wall full of pictures, books and objects, with a background of noise, we will understand little. [...] In silence we hear the voice of God. In this way we will be able to be genuine bearers of his Word -- as Mary who, 'kept all these things in her heart.'"
"If we dedicate time to choose the ingredients and to prepare the dinners and meals we will share over the holidays, must we not also prepare, and even more so, what we will communicate through radios, newspapers, television programs and Web sites? What can we give that is substantial, if our life is filled only with repeated words, with little depth and contents? Let us dedicate time to the Lord whom we are awaiting this Advent."