To cultivate awareness requires a sense of inner silence, inner unity. The noisiness, the flood of words with which our culture inundates us, makes any kind of awareness, let alone awareness of God, difficult for us.
— William H. Shannon, Christine M. Bochen, Patrick F. O'Connell, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia by William H. Shannon, editor, Christine M. Bochen, editor, Patrick F. O'Connell, editor