← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
How to Be Okay with Silence
00:08:36
Does silence ever feel uncomfortable? Do you fill the quiet with TV, music, or endless scrolling? Fr. Mike explains why silence isn’t something to fear but something we desperately need, both in our daily lives and especially in prayer. While learning, entertainment, and even guided prayers can be good, true growth happens when we create space for silence and allow ourselves to hear the voice of God.
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One of the things that I've been thinking about a lot is how often I have something in my earballs. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents Always listening to a podcast. I'm listening to YouTube stuff. I'm listening to audiobooks. Don't even get me started on audiobooks. Or vacuuming. Get the AirPods in and just, like, listen to something or. My gosh. I find myself even bringing AirPods into the chapel to have prayer. Why? Because I love listening to the Ascension app. Sorry, this sounds like a commercial, but it's not really a commercial. Here's one of my things. I listen to the Bible in the air. I listen to that. I listen to it at 1.5 speed or 2 times speed because people typically don't like the sound of their own voice. So I am like most people. I typically don't like the sound of my own voice, but if I listen at 1.5 speed or 2 times speed, then I can pretend it's someone else. I'm always listening to something. I don't want to say it's an addiction, because that's a loose use of a technical term. I would say it's kind of a compulsion, though. I would say that it's kind of a thing that I find myself leaning on. The point is this, and maybe you're like me, right? Where you realize I'm always listening to something and the invitation to enter into silence. I have not RSVP'd to the invitation to enter into silence. The main thing is I wanna know more. For me, it's always like, I always think there's something else out there that I wanna grasp. I love engaging with new ideas. But here's the problem. I can have knowledge of something that is a mile wide and an inch deep. What happens is I'm always going on to the next thing without going deeply into one thing. On the positive side, the great thing about listening to something all the time because you want to learn more, want to be engaged by big ideas, is that you get engaged by big ideas. Awesome. It's a mile wide. The negative side is, unless I press stop and then think about what I've heard, it's only an inch deep. If I keep inputting other people's ideas, other people's voices, other people's thoughts into my brain, oftentimes I end up not knowing what it is I think. This doesn't just have to do with podcasts or YouTube channels or audiobooks. This is even song lyrics. How many times have you or I, in the course of a day, had the song lyric running through our brain? And if we stopped and paused and just attended to it, be like, wait, why do I want those words in my brain? If you're listening to something that's uplifting, something that you actually have discerned already, this helps me focus my thoughts. This help. This is actually what I want to think. Say, for example, some kind of song that praises God, or some kind of song that reminds you of the goodness of the world, the goodness of people. Like a song that, you know you've already thought about it and you know it's true. Like, that makes sense. It's kind of like meditating on the psalms. That sense of like, here are words that are true, here is something that is true. And I actually want that to shape the lens of my brain. I want that to shape the way I look at the world. So if I've already discerned this thought, okay, this thought is true, it's good, it's beautiful. Then yes, put that into my mind. But how often have we found ourselves having undiscerned. Undiscerned, having not discerned what the thought is? Many of us have thoughts and we don't know where they came from. Like many, many of us have opinions. And not all of us have stopped and asked the question, A, what do I think? B, is that true? And to be able to stop for a moment and okay, this, you know, I just listened to a TED talk, or I just watched this YouTube video, or I just listened to this book, okay, now I have an opinion. Is that my opinion or is that just something I most recently heard? What do I think? B, is it true? Is it good, true or beautiful? Second is distraction. What I'm doing is I'm saying, okay, I'm here, whether that's in this location or emotion, and I don't want to be here. If it is an escape, then that's a little bit of a problem. Like, for example, it's a time of grief, and so let me feel my sadness. It's a time of anxiety, a time of release. Like, kind of like, okay, wow, it's stress. Now there's distress and there's eustress. Distress is when I have experiencing stress and it's not a great thing. Eustress is okay, this is the kind of stress that is moving me to act like, okay, great, that's not bad to move from there because I want to be calm when I need to be active wouldn't necessarily be the Best route to pursue. So again, I just want to learn. Mile wide, inch deep. I want to distract myself. I don't want to be here. That is also a little bit of a problem. Another is I like the feeling that there's quote unquote, someone there. Come in, turn on the tv, there's the news playing, or whatever the thing is. Or get in the car, turn on the radio or start playing the songs. Because it feels like there's someone there. I totally understand that completely makes sense. But because I'm making it sound like there feel like there's someone there. I actually might be missing out on the fact that there is an actual capital S someone there. You know what I mean? Because I'm distracting myself from this moment because I'm letting my mind be filled with a bunch of thoughts. Maybe they're true, good and beautiful. Because I'm making it feel like there's someone there. I'm missing out on the Lord's voice. I'm missing out on his presence. I'm missing out on the fact that actually there is someone there right now. And so when do we need. Well, we need to enter into silence. This is the invitation once again, is that noise is not awful. Learning is good thing. Music, wonderful feeling like there's someone there. Not a problem. But to be present, not only present to my emotions, not only present to my thoughts, not only present to this particular moment, but also present to the God of this moment is what we need. It's one of the reasons why Scripture makes it clear, Be still and know that I am God. If I'm not still. And I don't just mean inactive, I don't just mean not moving. I mean stillness of mind and stillness of heart. Be still and know that I am God. If I don't make the time to do that, I'm going to miss out on what my actual emotions are. I'm going to miss on what my actual thoughts are. I'm going to miss out on this moment and I'm going to miss God's voice. You know, one of the authors who talked about this a bunch is a man named Thomas A. Kempis. This is the Ascension edition of the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis. Many times in this book where Thomas Kempis just invites us and he's writing this hundreds and hundreds of years ago. But there are times here in this book where Thomas Kempis invites people. He put down the distractions. And those distractions can be anything from those things that occupy my mind. Study, which is all again, it's good. But do I know what I think? Is that true? Distractions from how I'm actually doing? What are my thoughts, feelings, desires of my heart, distractions of other people. I just want to be somewhere else. I don't want to feel alone. Put down those distractions and enter into the silence. Thomas Akim is talking about. This points to Jesus and how many times Jesus left the crowds. How many times Jesus put his work down. How many times Jesus, yes, I'm sure he celebrated like the wedding feast at Canaan, but there were times where Jesus put all that down and went up the mountain by himself to pray, went into the Garden of Gethsemane by himself to pray, where he was willing to stop the noise and enter into silence. So here's my invitation. Enter into silence, put down the noise. And here's what I mean. You can do this today. If you've already prayed today, great. Tomorrow, let your prayer be silent. But tonight, when you go to bed, you might be one of the many of us who like to listen to something as you drift off to sleep again. Is it good or bad? It's what it is. But maybe there can be this act of faith where you press stop on whatever the thing is, the podcast, the TV show, the YouTube video, and just say, I'm going to lie here in silence. Maybe you can't fall asleep. Maybe you need to put it back on play to go to fall asleep. Whatever you need to do. Again, I'm not saying it's good or bad, right or wrong. I'm just saying enter into silence. If after 10, 15 minutes, you're like, okay, my mind is racing. I can't settle down, and you need to take a break, press play, fall asleep, whatever. Do whatever you need to do. But maybe in that silence, you can actually be attentive to what you think. Maybe in that silence, you can actually feel what you really feel. And maybe even in that silence, you can actually hear the voice of the Lord. That's someone who is and always will be. Right there. That's the invitation from Almost Here Tonight. Presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless. Okay, I'm here. I want to be somewhere else. And it's not necessarily because. And this is. This is so many of us. Maybe. And maybe in any kind of any given moment, I remember not just. And maybe you're like me, right? I'm so excited.