The Beauty of Silence

So this past week, I went on a retreat at Franciscan University of Steubenville (whooo!) called Franciscan L.E.A.D. (Leadership, Evangelization, and Discipleship.) It was exhausting, but there are so many things I learned from it and so many great experiences that I had, that it was hard for me to pick one thing to blog about. One of the most important things that I learned from the week was the beauty of silence. We had an entire silent night, starting at about 10 p.m. and ending at 10 a.m the next morning. Honestly, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Not only were we not allowed to talk, we weren't allowed to write notes, and we were even told to avoid making eye contact with each other.

So I had a lot of struggles with this. First of all, when some nice boy held the door for me, I couldn't say thank you, or even look at him, and I felt like a complete jerk. Also, things kept popping into my head that I wanted to say to people, but I couldn't talk to them. So at last in my desperation to talk, I found myself talking to Jesus. Instead of thanking someone for holding the door, I thanked Jesus for sending that person there to hold the door. Instead of telling my roommate "It's so hard to be silent for so long!" I told Jesus.


Basically, it was just an eye opening experience for me. I realized that during the hustle and bustle of my every day life, I sometimes forget that God is right there with me because I let other things block me from seeing him. I learned how truly important it is to forget about everything else for just a short time every day and just sit with God and talk to him in prayer and LISTEN to Him. No noise, no thoughts running through my head at a million miles per hour, no fancy pious words. Just real, authentic prayer.