During his Sunday Angelus address on December 10, Pope Francis reflected on St. John the Baptist, described in the Gospel reading of the Second Sunday of Advent as “the voice of one crying in the desert” (Mark 1:3).
“The desert, an empty place, where you do not communicate; and the voice, a means to speak—these seem like two contradictory images,” Pope Francis said. “But they are joined in the Baptist.”
The Pope added, “We can ask ourselves: What place does silence have in my days? Is it an empty, perhaps oppressive, silence? Or is it a space for listening, for prayer, for guarding my heart? Is my life sober or filled with superfluous things?”
“Even if it means going against the tide, let us value silence, sobriety and listening,” he concluded. “May Mary, Virgin of silence, help us to love the desert, to become credible voices who testify to her Son who is coming.”