The Sounds of Silence

It seemed like a typical Sunday Mass in a typical parish.  The opening hymn was joyful, the Penitential Rite was reverent, and the Glory to God was sung by all with vigor.  Then the presider said, “Let us pray.”  Then nothing happened.  Ten seconds became fifteen, then twenty.  People began to look around nervously and wondered:  What’s wrong with Father?  Did he fall asleep?

In fact, he was simply doing what the liturgy intends.  The missal says that, after the priest says, “Let us pray,” the priest and people “pray silently for a while.”  In some parishes that “while” lasts only a few seconds, but it is intended to be a brief yet significant pause for prayer.  This is an appropriate time for each of us to recall our needs and hopes and present them to the Lord.  The priest then gathers our prayers into one opening prayer – a prayer sometimes referred to as a “collect” because it collects our prayers together.

This is one of several places in the Mass that silence is encouraged.  The liturgy is always a blend of sounds and silence.  Since Mass is communal worship, it is natural that most of the time we are together will be filled with spoken and musical prayer.  Yet there is also a need for moments of silence to allow ourselves to enter more deeply into the worship we share.

During the Liturgy of the Word we are also encouraged to enter into moments of silence after the readings and after the homily.   The General Instruction of the Roman Missal calls for such silences so that “the Word of God may be grasped by [our] heart.”

We are also called to share a time of silence after we have all received Holy Communion as a sign of our unity.

These times of silence don’t work automatically, of course.  It takes a deliberate effort from every member of the assembly even to allow silence to occur.  The priest and deacon up front may be quiet, but shared silence also requires the assembly to embrace it.  Sometimes we seem a bit uncomfortable with silence, because we live in a world of almost constant noise.  We need to learn how to be silent together.

And in the silence, each of us must decide whether to engage in sincere prayer or just to daydream.  If we embrace these times of silent prayer, however, we can enrich our experience of the Mass, drawing us closer to Christ and to one another as we worship together.