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How to Cultivate Silence for a Better Prayer Life

Practicing Catholic

On this episode of Practicing Catholic, hosts Taylor Kemp and Dr. Scott Hefelfinger tackle a challenge almost every praying Catholic knows well: sitting down for prayer only to find that silence is anything but quiet inside. Drawing on a year of listener response to their episodes on prayer, Taylor and Scott turn to the question underneath it — why cultivating real silence is so difficult, and why it's essential to the spiritual life anyway. Scott opens with a passage from St. Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle, where she urges the soul entering the "second dwelling places" to strip away unnecessary business and busyness, not just sin, in order to progress. From there, the conversation turns practical: Taylor and Scott talk through the real sources of "noise" in their own lives — social media, podcasts, audiobooks, even good and worthy commitments — and how easily these can crowd out the space prayer needs. They discuss concrete habits that have helped them, like resisting the urge to fill a commute with music or podcasts and instead letting the mind settle and process the day, and stress that true silence isn't an empty nothingness but space intentionally filled with communion with God. The episode closes with each host sharing a personal action item for the week ahead — including a nightly Examen practice with family and a commitment to a silent morning walk — as a practical starting point for anyone hoping to make more room for God in the noise of daily life. Have a question or topic idea for future episodes? Submit them here: http://practicingcatholicpodcast.com/ Watch Into Great Silence on Formed: https://app.formed.org/app/videos/4103291 Sign up for an Augustine Institute Retreat! https://www.augustineinstitute.org/about-pages/retreats-and-conferences