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

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.

Chapters

• 1:36 Opening Prayer in Latin
• 2:02 Introduction to Holy Tuesday
• 2:53 Reading on Silence from Scripture
• 4:55 Prayer for Divine Guidance
• 5:50 Thoughts on Baptismal Silence
• 6:56 Four Resolutions for Holy Week
• 8:35 Personal Reflections on Digital Silence

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:49

SANTE, sante AMARE MORTI NECRADAS NOS IN TE SPERA VERUM. Good morning everyone and welcome to Holy Tuesday, day 42 here of Lent, and we are right in the middle of Holy Week. Tomorrow is by Wednesday. Today we will be talking about silence and yeah, if you're just joining us, these are from the book Toward Easter by Father Patrick Trodeck. The link is in the description below. 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 just listen as I read the reading from the book here and we will get going.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Tuesday in Holy Week Silence. Silence From the Passion. According to St Mark, chapter 15, verse 5, jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate wondered. On Sunday, the Church had us hear the account of the Passion according to St Matthew. Today she has us read that according to St Mark.

Speaker 1: 2:37

There we contemplate the serenity with which Jesus goes towards His death. We are struck by His silence in His ascent of Calvary. It is certainly not a haughty, spiteful silence of disdain. His silence is that of a recollected soul, of a soul plunged in God. It is from this silence that Jesus draws the necessary strength to endure the most cruel torments. His silence is also bound to the fact that he took upon himself the weight of our sins. Thus, in his passion, he is in a way identified with the sinner, and the sinner who does not convert will have nothing to answer the sovereign judge when he appears before him at the end of time. Lord Jesus, it is in order to save me that thou gavest thyself over to such outrages. It is my sins that are the cause of them. In making reparation for my failings, thou dost nourish me in the virtue of hope. As thou sayest by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah he that hath walked in darkness and hath no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God. And seeing thee keep silent during thy passion, I wish also to live this week in the deepest recollection.

Speaker 1: 4:08

And now we have a prayer, a prayer from a father of Rillin Averlon, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 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. Patience of my God, wait for me. Zeal of my God, inflame me with thy divine ardors in time and in eternity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Our first thought of the day is from a work called the Doors of Silence, page 7. God created your soul silent At baptism. God Created your Soul Silent At baptism, in an inviolate silence. He filled it with himself, nothing but himself. 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 steadily louder. Come back to the baptismal silence, o, my brother, and now from St John Vianney. We are never aggravated at having said nothing, and nearly always we regret having said too much.

Speaker 1: 6:09

We have four resolutions today. The first resolution Let us seek after silence during this week in order to imitate our Lord and to meditate the story of our salvation with greater attention. Let us flee useless conversations, let us know how to shorten telephone conversations. Let us limit the use of the internet to what is strictly necessary. The second resolution Let us reflect before we speak. The third resolution Let us furnish the time of silence in making, at least from time to time, ejaculatory prayers such as O Mary, my kind mother, protect me, or else, jesus, have pity on me. Jesus, I love thee. Let us make the resolution to follow a silent retreat at some time during the year and within the next week. Let us make definite plans for doing so. And there are. There is our reading for today.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Anthony, if you're listening to this one, my condolences. This one's a tough one for you. 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 needless conversations, things like that. That's, that's not me. For any of you who have watched the show for a while, you know that. That's just that's not me.

Speaker 1: 8:15

For me, my issue or my difficulty with this meditation today is more filling, you know, the silence with other things. For me, it's, you know, always, uh, you know it's scrolling twitter unnecessarily, um, it's listening to podcast. Um, anytime, oh, I mean almost every time I'm not listening to someone. Talk, you know, talk to me, uh, you know I, when I'm at work and I'm I'm working on things, I have earbud in and I'm listening to something, whether it'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 sitting and watching TV, I have my phone and I'm scrolling Twitter or something like that. So I'm always having to, um, fill my intention with numerous things at once.

Speaker 1: 9:24

Very rarely, you know, do I give myself actual silence, um, and when I do, I I most often do that, and I find it easiest to do that, personally, when I'm like out in the woods, in nature. You know, when I'm out there, I find I find any sort of noise, whether visual or audio, to be an intrusion upon, upon just the silence of nature um. So this week, when of it, when possible, I think I'm going to do my best to, to, to, to go out and be in nature, um, and since I find it easiest to, to be silent out there, to, you know, then go and and just use that silence to, to pray and to, to pray and meditate upon the, the coming passion of our lord um. So that's that's what I have to do, right, to achieve this sort of silence. It's, for me, it's not the talking, it's the having to fill the void with something, um, so you got to do what you gotta do. Uh, you know, there are those who who are much more talkative to me than me. Um, you know, I, I, I don't have a lot of advice for you, unfortunately, cause I'm, I'm just not used to, I, just I, I'm, I'm not familiar with that problem. But, um, for those of you who, like me, have to fill the silence or the void with something, like I said, if I fill it with nature, then that silence is much easier, you know, than I want that silence. You know, then, that I want that silence, you know.

Speaker 1: 11:19

And then some of these other resolutions, you know, the silent retreat, if you're able to, if that's something you can do. I do suggest that I've never done it. I've heard great things from those who have done it. It would be.

Speaker 1: 11:42

It's hard for me to do with the age of my children. You know I don't want to leave my wife with, uh, you know, three or soon to be four, you know young children, uh, for an extended period, unless I absolutely have to. So maybe, if I find a weekend-long retreat, that may be something I could do. But if you're able to find a silent retreat sometime within the next year and, as Father says, make plans for doing that with, you know, within this next week here, um, but that's what I have for you today, here on holy tuesday. Tomorrow is spy wednesday, where we will be talking about the virtue of fortitude, and then after tomorrow we're're into the Triduum. So I hope you all have a great remainder of Holy Week. I hope you're able to find or create that silence that we need this week, and I will see you all tomorrow morning, thank you.