Noise is a desecration of the soul, noise is the “silent” ruin of the interior life.
Man always has the tendency to remain outside himself. But we must ceaselessly come back to the interior castle. We discover this noise painfully when we decide to stop what we are doing to enter into prayer. Often the great din colonizes our interior temple. The modern world has multiplied the most toxic noises, which are so many malignant enemies of peace of heart. In a secularized, materialistic, and hedonistic world, in which wars, bombs, and submachine gunfire, acts of violence and barbarism are the common currency, where assaults on the dignity of the human person, the family, and life affect people at their very core, respect for silence has become the least of humanity’s worries. And yet God hides himself in silence.
From “The Power of Silence” by Cardinal Sarah
