RB Prologue 19

"What, dear brothers, is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us?"
It is worth noting that twice within a few verses dealing with the works necessary for spiritual advancement, Saint Benedict warns against 'vicious talk' and 'practicing deceit with his tongue' and listening to slander. At the risk of being hypocritical (as I type away on a blog), we can observe that we are absolutely inundated with words in our world. And 'when words are many, sin is not lacking'. How easy it is to fall into denigrating someone I don't care for when I give free reign to my tongue!
Even if we manage to avoid sinning, all these words block out the voice of the Lord and what a shame this is! God's Word saves--it cuts to the heart, paring away the overgrowth of needless worry, vain reflections and enervating trivia. We are sometimes asked if monks take a vow of silence. We do not, but we do practice silence most of the day. This is very demanding in a world where we rely on constant affirmation from others. We must seek God's voice in silence so that we can practice a warm and welcoming silence rather than a stony indifference toward others.