  Noise is not conducive to communicating with God. He doesn't shout, He whispers. But we can't hear Him if we're always talking, always surrounded by noise and distractions. We need to slow down, be still and listen. He'll always hear us. The problem is us hearing Him.
 In her column this week, we bring you a gem from the archived columns of Sister Mary Lucy Astuto in which she reminds us that we need to get off the treadmill and stop and smell the flowers. Once we do that, we have a better opportunity to pause and reflect and hear the gentle whisper of God. How do we do this? She points out that quiet prayer and meditation are the best ways, as well as reading Sacred Scriptures and the lives of the saints. The former is the Word of God that speaks to us in volumes literally, the latter illustrates how His Word has been carried out and offers a blueprint of how we, too, can emulate the virtues of these holy men and women who shut out the world in order to open up to God. Do you think the Blessed Mother would have said yes to be the Mother of God if she was too busy to pray? She is known as the Sorrowful Mother not just because of what she lived through with her Divine Son, but what she was given to see for all eternity how our sins and indifference to Jesus are yet another lash, another scourge, another thorn in His sacred skull. Especially here in the new millennium, we need to rein in our technological tethers amid all the cacaphony and steal away to a quiet place where we can hear and experience the will of God through prayer and quiet time. Then we can apply this to our everyday life and know when God is speaking to us...and when it is the devil tempting us. It's important, vitally important, to know the difference. Satan loves noise, God doesn't. Neither should we. For her column, entitled Shhhh! God's Talking! see GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
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