How could Mary have been anything but silent?

Tradition says that the three inhabitants of the holy house of Nazareth hardly ever spoke. The gentle celestial talks that we imagine as being part of the life of the Holy Family only took place in our imagination; they never happened. There was a deeper silence there than in the loneliness of our tears or in Chartreux Abbey where the winds of the Alps roar through the corridors and shake the windows, while everything else is as silent as the tomb.

Jesus' words were very rare. This is why Mary kept them in her heart, because, like treasures, they were as rare as they were precious. If we reflect, we will see that it could hardly have been otherwise. God is very silent.

How could Mary have been anything but silent? A creature who lived so long with the Creator couldn't speak much; her heart was full, her soul reduced to silence. She had been with Jesus for twelve long years, long years in relation to the formation of habits, although they would have passed for Mary as a holy ecstasy, full of painful love.

She had carried Jesus in her arms. She had watched over him while he slept. She had given him his food; she had looked him in the eye. He had unceasingly revealed his heart to her. She had learned to understand it. All the similarities with God had passed into the soul of Mary. We know how silent God is.

Frédéric William Faber (1814-1863)

From Le Pied de la Croix, 3° douleur (The Foot of the Cross, 3rd sorrow), Paris, Ambroise Bray, 1858.