Why treating silence like a vacuum misses the point of Advent.
The Default Mode
We are terrified of dead air. In our conversations, our homes, and our prayer lives, we treat silence like a signal loss. It feels like a vacuum—a void that must be filled immediately with a podcast, a playlist, or our own internal monologue. We assume that if nothing is making a sound, then nothing is happening. This anxiety drives us to drown out the very thing we are searching for.
The Carmelite Shift
We need to redefine our terms. As discussed in this week’s episode, silence is not simply the absence of noise; it is the presence of attention.
"Silence is not simply a vacuum or empty space. Silence is the absence of something for the sake of the presence of something else."
Think of reading a novel. You are technically silent, but your mind is actively building a world, receiving the story, and engaging with the author’s reality. That is "active receptivity."
Advent demands this specific kind of silence. If you are constantly broadcasting—speaking, scrolling, doing—you cannot receive. You are blocking the signal. The Incarnation is a disclosure, a revealing of God's nature. But God cannot disclose Himself to a heart that is already full of its own noise. We must stop viewing silence as an awkward pause and start viewing it as the only frequency where God speaks.
The Bridge
If you are tired of the gap between what you know and how you live, you need a practical way to bridge that distance.
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