Silence and solitude do not refer only to the lessening of decibels. A person, notes Teresa [of Avila], cannot understand the indwelling mystery and fully realize Who is present within until he closes his eyes to the vanities of this world. Were she in our midst at the end of the twentieth century, the saint would no doubt specify that this means a drastic reduction in our exposure to the mass media, especially the electronic media of television, radio and film. If we spill out and drain our psychic energies by the mindless multiplicities of images and sounds, many of them garish and deafening, we just cannot retain the inner stamina for prayer. When we realize that the average home in our society, according to a recent survey, has its television set turned on for seven hours and ten minutes per day, we may not be shocked at what Teresa considers the amount of time everyone should give daily to prayerful solitude:

I do now know, my Creator, why it is that everyone does not strive to reach You through this special friendship, and why those who are wicked, who are not conformed to Your will, do not, in order that You make them good, allow You to be with them at least two hours each day, even though they may not be with You, but with a thousand disturbances from worldly cares and thoughts, as was the case with me.

The saint suggests that even distracted presence to the divine presence is bound to transform one from sin to virtue and eventually from common goodness to heroic sanctity.

Thomas Dubay in Fire Within p. 123