By Exaudi.org
POPE Francis continued his catechesis on Saint Joseph yesterday, painting him as a man of silence and action.
He said like Joseph, who was not quoted in the Bible, everyone needed silence.
“Joseph’s silence is not mutism, he is not taciturn; it is a silence full of listening, an industrious silence, a silence that brings out his great interiority,” Pope Francis said.
“‘The Father spoke a word, and it was his Son’, comments St John of the Cross, the Father said a word and it was his Son – ‘and it always speaks in eternal silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul’.
“How good it would be if each one of us, following the example of Saint Joseph, were able to recover this contemplative dimension of life, opened wide in silence.
“But we all know from experience that it is not easy – silence frightens us a little, because it asks us to delve into ourselves and to confront the part of us that is true.
“And many people are afraid of silence, they have to speak, and speak, and speak, or listen to radio or television… but they cannot accept silence because they are afraid.”
Pope Francis urged those listening to make a space in their live for silence and make time to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.