Devotional Thought of the Day:
Stay quiet before Yahweh, wait longingly for him, do not get heated over someone who is making a fortune, succeeding by devious means. Psalm 37:7 (NJB)

The continual recitation of the canon aloud results in the demand for “variety”, but the demand is insatiable, however much these eucharistic prayers may proliferate. There is only one solution: we must address ourselves once again to the intrinsic tension of the reality itself. In the end even variety becomes boring. This is why, here especially, we are in such urgent need of an education toward inwardness. We need to be taught to enter into the heart of things. As far as liturgy is concerned, this is a matter of life or death. The only way we can be saved from succumbing to the inflation of words is if we have the courage to face silence and in it learn to listen afresh to the Word. Otherwise we shall be overwhelmed by “mere words” at the very point where we should be encountering the Word, the Logos, the Word of love, crucified and risen, who brings us life and joy.

It happens every so often, when a worship leader or the rubrics (the small italic letters in our hymnals or bulletins) call for silence, that a musician determines that he must fill the silence with a solo.  Sure, it is well-meant, and not ostentatious. just a little light playing.

But there is a reason for silence, a reason for the awkward feeling of emptiness. the time when we are left alone with our thoughts when we need to realize they aren’t on God.

It is awkward, it even may produce a moment or two of guilt and regret.

That doesn’t mean we should ditch those moments.

In fact, we need them!  Desperately need them.

We need to enter the heart of worship, as the old worship song describes, the moment of awe in the presence of God, a presence so powerful we cannot speak.  It is not that we dare not, rather, we need to wait for God to speak.

We need to be comforted by Him, we need to enter into His presence to hear that He is taken care of our sin, and we belong with Him.

We can’t do that if we are trying to fill each and every moment with sound, with novelty, with trying to make things fresh and new.  Eventually, you can only overload people with so much, before the stimulation overload numbs them, and their participation is minimized.  ( Try playing five songs without a break, each one with the congregation clapping – how many are left at the 13-minute mark? )

I am not saying we do the stuff dry and without meaning either.  And i don’t think Ratzinger/Pope Benedict was saying that either.  Rather I think his point is making sure people realize that they are in the presence of God…..

and are loved by Him…

and have the time of silence ot know this… to realize it, not just as an academic point, but in the depth of their souls, the place that needs the most healing.  Time to descend to that place, and there, even as we cry out because of the pain, we find God at work, cleansing the wounds, healing them, comforting us…

We need this.

For it is the heart of our worship…

Lord, help us to shut up… and hear You, see You at work comforting us, and healing us.  AMEN!)

Joseph Ratzinger, The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 73.