Back From Retreat and I'm Exhausted!

Not complaining, just explaining. Five days of silence was a real gift, but not, by any means,  a restful silence. One can be silent and working. Think of a Trappist monastery where the monks all pray (ora) and then go to their work in silence (labora). Some monks garden raising a crop to make jellies and jams. Some might suit up to work the apiary, checking the bees while praying for a sweet golden harvest. Some make fruit cake or roast and pack coffee beans. I once saw two monks up on ladders picking pecans at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. But all their work is wrapped in silence. 

Screwtape Lives!

One of the scenes in The Screwtape Letters that I find most chilling involves Screwtape's advice to eliminate silence. He writes to his nephew, Wormwood, expressing his concern about the woman Wormwood's "patient" is seeing. She comes from a religious family and Screwtape fears the influence she will have on the young man through her faith:

Silence

Larry and I have been traveling now for three weeks. We've visited eleven states and driven about 3600 miles. When we left home we loaded the car with books on tape and music CDs. Amazingly, we haven't listened to a single one. We haven't listened to the radio either. One of the great gifts of this trip has been silence.

Our world is so noisy. Screwtape wrote to Wormwood that hell was all noise. When I see people plugged into their iPods and on their cell phones before they get out of the driveway, and with stereos blaring... I think of Screwtape. Our world needs more silence. Larry and I have talked through the miles, prayed many rosaries for the intentions of family and friends, and just soaked in the glory of this beautiful country in silence. Who needs artificial noise when the glorious symphony of God's world is playing out before you through the windshield. I hope when we get home in a few weeks we can maintain this appreciation of this great gift of silence.