No saint ever practiced silence as Mary did

Tradition says that the three inhabitants of the Holy House at Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph hardly ever spoke… A deeper silence than that of a Carthusian house where the Alpine winds moan in the corridors and shake the casements reigned there, and all else is silent as the tomb. The words of Jesus were very few. That was the reason Mary laid them up in her heart, because, like treasures, they were rare as well as precious.

When we reflect we shall see it could hardly be otherwise. God is very silent. So far as Mary is concerned the Gospel narrative fully bears out the tradition. It is amazing how few words of hers are recorded there... So striking is this, that some contemplatives have supposed that in her humility she commanded the Evangelists to suppress everything about her which was not absolutely necessary to the doctrine about our Blessed Lord.

We can have no doubt that no saint ever practiced silence as she did… But how should she be otherwise than silent? A creature, who had lived so long with the Creator, would not speak much. Her heart would be full. Her soul would be hushed... She had borne Him in her arms. She had watched Him sleep. She had given Him food. She had looked into His eyes. He had perpetually unveiled His Heart to her. Thus she had learned His ways.

Between the Creator and the creature, in such relations as He and Mary were in to each other, silence would be more of a language than words. What could words do? What could they say? They could not carry the weight of the Mother's thoughts, much less the Son's.

By Father Frederick William Faber C.O.

Father Faber (1814-1863), was a noted English hymn writer and theologian, who converted from Anglicanism to the Catholic priesthood.