Silence Is Realm in Which One Can Hear God

Found at: http://www.zenit.org/english

Date: 2004-07-11

Silence Is Realm in Which One Can Hear God, Says Pope

Warns of a Lack of Time for Recollection

LES COMBES, Italy, JULY 11, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Vacationing amid the forests and summits of the Alps, John Paul II emphasized the need for silence as the ambience in which to encounter God.

This was the message that a slightly tanned Pope gave to the 5,000 pilgrims who met and prayed the Angelus with him today in the village of Les Combes, in Valle d'Aosta, where he is spending a 12-day holiday.

"In this oasis of quiet, before the wonderful spectacle of nature, one easily experiences how profitable silence is, a good that today is ever more rare," the Holy Father said.

"The many opportunities of relation and information that modern society offers sometimes run the risk of robbing time for recollection, to the point of rendering persons incapable of reflecting and praying," he added.

"In reality, only in silence does man succeed in hearing in the depth of his conscience the voice of God, which really makes him free," the Pope said.

"And vacations can help to rediscover and cultivate this indispensable interior dimension of human life," John Paul II explained from the mountainous locality situated some 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level.

link: http://www.ze nit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=56653