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| Marianist Joe Lackner |
These silences are exercises, habits, virtues or disciplines practiced in order to come to understand and know ourselves and God better. These exercises can be transformational if they are part of oneʹs prayer and reflective life.
We reviewed and expanded the following today:
- the virtue or silence of words— the awareness of the power of our words and deliberate use of words to communicate authentically, inspirationally and lovingly.
- the silence of signs—an awareness of our non‐verbal means of communication. Eye contact, facial expressions, body language, etc. can say more than words. How do these non‐verbals speak in a Christ‐like manner to others?
- the silence of the mind—our efforts to take on the mind of Christ in such a way as to reflect Christʹs love and life in our Marianist vocation.
- silence of the imagination—we are challenged to use our imagination to create images in our mind centered on Christ’s mission and our individual role in that mission. Our imagination that encourages us to act in ways contrary to our life in Christ should be silenced.
From the words of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade -
When Rebecca of old, the mother of Jacob, wished to obtain the blessing of Isaac, she clothed her beloved son in the garments of Esau. In like manner, Mary is unceasingly striving to clothe us in the semblance of Jesus Christ, by endeavoring to inculcate into our hearts the thoughts and sentiments of Jesus, and to bring us to a realization of our title as Christians, that is as disciples and imitators of Jesus Christ.
