In your hands, Lord When life is enriched in the crucible of trial

It is necessary to learn to connect with the eternal in the present by introducing pauses and spaces of receptivity. Learning to listen in silence, to be silent about the absolute, as one of the best ways of expressing it. In this way we make silence a form of profound presence of God. Abraham's prayer is expressed first in Acts: men of silence, at each stage he builds an altar to the Lord. Only later does his first prayer appear in words. We must believe in our capacity to be silent and to create spaces and times for it, to promote a culture of silence, "to encounter ourselves, to reflect, to create beauty, to contemplate, to dialogue with others, for our prayer and for our encounter with God." Old age, illness, loneliness are valuable opportunities to live this challenge of encounter and abandonment, to let ourselves be touched and enriched, in silence, by the tenderness of God.

CIRO SCHMIDT A.

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