Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 42 / Holy Tuesday

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Silence speaks volumes during Holy Week. As we journey through the sacred days leading to Easter, today's reflection invites us to contemplate Christ's profound silence during His Passion—a silence that bewildered even Pilate. Unlike the bitter silence of resentment, Jesus' quiet demeanor flowed from a soul completely immersed in God, drawing strength for His ultimate sacrifice.

The meditation reveals a beautiful paradox: while Jesus bore the weight of humanity's sins in silence, He also offered us the gift of hope. "He that hath walked in darkness and hath no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God." This invitation to hope comes alongside a challenge to embrace silence ourselves during this holiest of weeks.

Reflecting on our spiritual journey, we confront an uncomfortable truth—how noise has gradually invaded the baptismal silence where God once dwelled undisturbed in our souls. For some, the challenge lies in excessive talking; for others, it's the compulsive filling of every moment with digital stimulation, podcasts, or scrolling that prevents true silence from taking root. Nature often provides the first gateway back to this original silence, creating space where prayer can flourish without distraction.

As we prepare for the Triduum, consider embracing one of today's resolutions: seek silence, reflect before speaking, incorporate brief prayers throughout your day, or plan a silent retreat in the coming year. These small steps toward reclaiming sacred silence might just be what allows us to hear the gentle voice of God once more. Join us tomorrow for Spy Wednesday as we explore the virtue of fortitude before entering the most solemn days of the Christian calendar.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
SANTE, sante AMARE MORTI NECRADAS NOS IN TE SPERA

(00:28):
VERUM.
Good morning everyone andwelcome to Holy Tuesday, day 42
here of Lent, and we are rightin the middle of Holy Week.
Tomorrow is by Wednesday.
Today we will be talking aboutsilence and yeah, if you're just

(00:51):
joining us, these are from thebook Toward Easter by Father
Patrick Trodeck.
The link is in the descriptionbelow.
You can find these on YouTube,on Rumble, as well as on the
different audio podcast apps,and I'm going to throw up an
image on screen so you justlisten as I read the reading

(01:15):
from the book here and we willget going.
Tuesday in Holy Week Silence.
Silence From the Passion.
According to St Mark, chapter15, verse 5, jesus made no
further answer, so that Pilatewondered.

(01:36):
On Sunday, the Church had ushear the account of the Passion
according to St Matthew.
Today she has us read thataccording to St Mark.
There we contemplate theserenity with which Jesus goes
towards His death.
We are struck by His silence inHis ascent of Calvary.

(02:00):
It is certainly not a haughty,spiteful silence of disdain.
His silence is that of arecollected soul, of a soul
plunged in God.
It is from this silence thatJesus draws the necessary
strength to endure the mostcruel torments.
His silence is also bound tothe fact that he took upon

(02:25):
himself the weight of our sins.
Thus, in his passion, he is ina way identified with the sinner
, and the sinner who does notconvert will have nothing to
answer the sovereign judge whenhe appears before him at the end
of time.
Lord Jesus, it is in order tosave me that thou gavest thyself

(02:47):
over to such outrages.
It is my sins that are thecause of them.
In making reparation for myfailings, thou dost nourish me
in the virtue of hope.
As thou sayest by the mouth ofthe prophet Isaiah he that hath
walked in darkness and hath nolight, let him hope in the name
of the Lord and lean upon hisGod.

(03:08):
And seeing thee keep silentduring thy passion, I wish also
to live this week in the deepestrecollection.
And now we have a prayer, aprayer from a father of Rillin
Averlon, in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the

(03:31):
Holy Ghost Amen.
Meekness of my God, pacify me.
Providence of my God, govern me.
Justice of my God, govern me.
Justice of my God, spare me.
Mercy of my God, save me.
Fidelity of my God, crown me.

(03:55):
Patience of my God, wait for me.
Zeal of my God, inflame me withthy divine ardors in time and
in eternity.
In the name of the Father andof the Son and of the Holy Ghost
, amen.

(04:16):
Our first thought of the day isfrom a work called the Doors of
Silence, page 7.
God created your soul silent Atbaptism.
God Created your Soul Silent Atbaptism, in an inviolate
silence.
He filled it with himself,nothing but himself.

(04:36):
Only later, little by little,did the world force its way in.
Noise invaded your soul,covering the gentle voice of God
.
The racket has grown steadilylouder.
Come back to the baptismalsilence, o, my brother, and now

(05:03):
from St John Vianney.
We are never aggravated athaving said nothing, and nearly
always we regret having said toomuch.
We have four resolutions today.
The first resolution Let usseek after silence during this

(05:32):
week in order to imitate ourLord and to meditate the story
of our salvation with greaterattention.
Let us flee uselessconversations, let us know how
to shorten telephoneconversations.
Let us limit the use of theinternet to what is strictly

(05:53):
necessary.
The second resolution Let usreflect before we speak.
The third resolution Let usfurnish the time of silence in
making, at least from time totime, ejaculatory prayers such

(06:14):
as O Mary, my kind mother,protect me, or else, jesus, have
pity on me.
Jesus, I love thee.
Let us make the resolution tofollow a silent retreat at some
time during the year and withinthe next week.

(06:35):
Let us make definite plans fordoing so.
And there are.
There is our reading for today.
Anthony, if you're listening tothis one, my condolences.
This one's a tough one for you.

(06:55):
Of this one, my condolences.
This one's a tough one for you,but it's tough for all of us.
You know it's.
It's tough for me, um, for me,it's not so much, um, talking,
it's not so much having needlessconversations, things like that

(07:15):
.
That's, that's not me.
For any of you who have watchedthe show for a while, you know
that.
That's just that's not me.
For me, my issue or mydifficulty with this meditation
today is more filling, you know,the silence with other things.

(07:40):
For me, it's, you know, always,uh, you know it's scrolling
twitter unnecessarily, um, it'slistening to podcast.
Um, anytime, oh, I mean almostevery time I'm not listening to

(08:01):
someone.
Talk, you know, talk to me, uh,you know I, when I'm at work
and I'm I'm working on things, Ihave earbud in and I'm
listening to something, whetherit's an audio book, a podcast,
things like that.
When I'm at home doing chores,same thing I have an earbud in
and I'm listening to something.
You know, even when I'm sittingand watching TV, I have my

(08:27):
phone and I'm scrolling Twitteror something like that.
So I'm always having to, um,fill my intention with numerous
things at once.
Very rarely, you know, do I givemyself actual silence, um, and
when I do, I I most often dothat, and I find it easiest to
do that, personally, when I'mlike out in the woods, in nature

(08:50):
.
You know, when I'm out there, Ifind I find any sort of noise,
whether visual or audio, to bean intrusion upon, upon just the
silence of nature um.
So this week, when of it, whenpossible, I think I'm going to
do my best to, to, to, to go outand be in nature, um, and since

(09:19):
I find it easiest to, to besilent out there, to, you know,
then go and and just use thatsilence to, to pray and to, to
pray and meditate upon the, thecoming passion of our lord um.
So that's that's what I have todo, right, to achieve this sort
of silence.

(09:39):
It's, for me, it's not thetalking, it's the having to fill
the void with something, um, soyou got to do what you gotta do
.
Uh, you know, there are thosewho who are much more talkative
to me than me.
Um, you know, I, I, I don'thave a lot of advice for you,

(10:05):
unfortunately, cause I'm, I'mjust not used to, I, just I, I'm
, I'm not familiar with thatproblem.
But, um, for those of you who,like me, have to fill the
silence or the void withsomething, like I said, if I
fill it with nature, then thatsilence is much easier, you know

(10:26):
, than I want that silence.
You know, then, that I wantthat silence, you know.
And then some of these otherresolutions, you know, the
silent retreat, if you're ableto, if that's something you can
do.
I do suggest that I've neverdone it.

(10:51):
I've heard great things fromthose who have done it.
It would be.
It's hard for me to do with theage of my children.
You know I don't want to leavemy wife with, uh, you know,
three or soon to be four, youknow young children, uh, for an
extended period, unless Iabsolutely have to.

(11:12):
So maybe, if I find aweekend-long retreat, that may
be something I could do.
But if you're able to find asilent retreat sometime within
the next year and, as Fathersays, make plans for doing that
with, you know, within this nextweek here, um, but that's what

(11:37):
I have for you today, here onholy tuesday.
Tomorrow is spy wednesday,where we will be talking about
the virtue of fortitude, andthen after tomorrow we're're
into the Triduum.
So I hope you all have a greatremainder of Holy Week.

(11:59):
I hope you're able to find orcreate that silence that we need
this week, and I will see youall tomorrow morning, thank you.