Pope Francis has urged people to set aside a moment of silence each day “to be with God” and keep from being “corroded” by the “banality of consumerism”.
In a New Year’s Day homily delivered at the Vatican, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics took the silence of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as his theme, noting that during the Gospel accounts of Christmas, she is not reported as saying anything.
“[W]e need silence,” he said. “As we look on in silence, we let Jesus speak to our heart. His lowliness lays low our pride; His poverty challenges our outward display; His tender love touches our hardened hearts”.
“To set aside a moment of silence each day to be with God is to ‘keep’ our soul; it is to ‘keep’ our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting.”
Pope Francis said the person of Mary is an example of what God wants the church to be: “a mother who is tender and lowly, poor in material goods and rich in love, free of sin and united to Jesus, keeping God in our hearts and our neighbour in our lives”.
