The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise Paperback – March 23, 2017

Before I decided to write this review, I took it upon myself to read the "one star" reviews to see if anyone totally disagreeing with me about this magnificent book had any valid points. All I found by doing that is that there are unhappy people everywhere, and they're very happy to keep crucifying Christ and demanding Barabbas twenty one centuries after the fact.This book, at least for me, was -- and is -- and will be -- life changing. I'm on my second consecutive reading (I'll have to give it at least three, maybe four, consecutive reads; I may have to spend the entirety of 2019 reading it again and again.I have been an ECM fan ever since Manfred Eicher's vision took hold of my soul after my father's death in 1973, and I have always been enthralled by the great epithet of the world's greatest jazz label: "the next best sound to silence." Perhaps it was the audacity of the claim that struck me, or its perceptiveness.Robert Cardinal Sarah picks up where ECM's claim leaves off; here is the iceberg below the tip. Here is the pearl of great worth, buried in the field; here is the better portion; here is the grand unification theory; here is the core of reality that anchors existence itself to the Alpha and the Omega from whence it proceeded and to which it ultimately returns.Aside from the bible (and perhaps "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis), no other book has EVER had such a profound effect on me. Its message is simple, profound, powerful, and ABSOLUTELY necessary in -- and for -- a world dissolving in Benedict XVI's "Dictatorship of Relativism".INDISPENSABLE!

This is the best book on matters spiritual that I have read in many, many years. Apart from the Bible, of course. I am not a Catholic, and some of what he has to say about the Catholic disciplines does not exactly resonate with me as a non-denominational Christian. However, he has profound insights and wisdom and I have learned a great deal from his writing. I like the short segments that are numbered. I don't have to read 20 pages in a row to get something out of this book. I actually read the book twice online through my library, but wanted a copy for my own. I challenge anyone to buy this book and not walk away with profound insights.

THIS BOOK IS POWERFUL! Don't let the title and the sometimes monastic language fool you. This book is totally powerful for ANYONE: Catholic, Protestant, atheist or whatever! Cardinal Sarah has been harrassed and pushed to be blindly submissive to a weak, compromising, dictatorial, political, wishy-washy Pope and this book is his amazing answer. No, he is not advocating silence as in quiet criminal complicity disguised as holiness.He is advocating the silence that comes from an attitude of humble, courageous, loving, obedient LISTENING to God through the Bible, the teachings of the Church and the words and actions of the saints. It's like the difference between a toy water pistol and a 16 inch Navy gun or between counting with your fingers and the most advanced supercomputers or between smoke signals and the most advanced communications. It's what has made holiness and the saints leave a deep, history making, history changing, un-erasable mark in humankind (recognized by very many non-Catholics), without any sort of organized blind-clone activism.About the obssesive NOISE of false love propaganda, false compassion, tolerance of sin, inclusiveness of good and bad, media lies, extreme feminist fanaticism, socialism for the poor and anti-Christian activism you find in page 47, paragraph 2: "I looked at Mother Theresa... she added: "Read the Gospel attentively and you'll see that Jesus sacrificed even charity for prayer. And, do you know why? To teach us that, without God, we are too poor to help the poor!" At that time we saw so many priests and religious abandoning prayer in order to immerse themselves- as they said- in social work." (end of quote) WOW!!! Holy jumping Moses and Jehosaphat!! Holy woman of God, Batman!! The silence Cardinal Sarah practices, preaches and teaches does NOT make church mouses but Invincible Roaring Tigers of God!! It's not Buddhist pacifism but Spiritual Hydrogen Bomb power for the TRUE blessing, healing, love, justice and progress of humanking AND Nature. Join in, baby!!!

I am enjoying. And so many others referenced. Could find a ton for research or further reading. Not something I could read in a day.