I have a friend who is a saint. She is also married to a saint. This family has raised six children to be excellent Catholics. Not one child fell away. They are a TLM family. The dad and mom did not raise their children as "friends", but as sons and daughters. There is no confusion in that family as to who is the authority-Dad.
This saintly woman told me yesterday that she has learned over the years to hear God, to listen to movements from the Holy Spirit to pray for people, to give advice as needed, to correct, to sustain.
Are we listening to God?
This family does not and has not had television. The children are all grown-up and in their middle or late twenties except for one teenager.
The children have learned how to pray.
Prayer is listening to God. But, there must be silence.
I know of another family where all but one child has fallen away from the Faith. The parents to this day live a life full of noise and useless activity. The house is never quiet, as the television and radio are on constantly. These parents cannot understand why their children fell away. The home was not reflective; the home was not an oasis of peace and silence.
Most Americans seem not to be able to live in silence, even for part of the day. Noise here is constant. The Americans have become afraid of quiet and silence. Since moving here, except for a few days in a house where a friend of mine was gone all day, I have been surrounded in noise. Why cannot Americans be quiet?
I think part of it is fear, fear of meeting one's sinful self, fear of God.
I think that purgatory must be loud and noisy. I think hell must be cacophonous.
God speaks to us in the silence. If we do not make silence in our day, daily, we shall not hear God.
To whom are you listening?