“As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves but does not speak.”

—  Matka Tereza

Letter to Michael van der Peet (September 1979), quoted in "Mother Teresa Did Not Feel Christ's Presence for Last Half of Her Life, Letters Reveal", Fox News (24 August 2007) http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/08/24/mother-teresa-did-not-feel-christ-presence-for-last-half-her-life-letters/
1970s
Context: Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves but does not speak.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves b…" by Matka Tereza?
Matka Tereza photo
Matka Tereza 52
Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin 1910–1997

Related quotes

Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo

“Many have a way with words. They label themselves seers but they will not see. Many have the gift of tongue but nothing to say. Do not listen to them. Many who have words and tongue have no ear, they cannot listen and they will not hear.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa Speaking in Tongues

"Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers" (1981)
Source: in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, p. 171

“When you and the truth speak to me, I do not listen to the truth. I listen to you.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Cuando tú y la verdad me hablan, no escucho a la verdad. Te escucho a ti.
Voces (1943)

“People don’t automatically appreciate the difference between listening and hearing any more than they do the difference between looking and seeing.”

Ivor Tiefenbrun (1946) Scottish businessman

Interview in Audio Perfectionist Journal http://www.auriclepublishing.com/page0/assets/Ivor%20%20Interview%20for%20web.pdf.
2006

“Out of nowhere I have appeared. They see me for the first time. No longer the image, but reality. They see and they hear me. I raise my arms, and the gasps and babble die down. I begin to speak the words we knew and decided long ago. Each hears me in his own tongue.”

Desmond Leslie (1921–2001) British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician

Source: The Amazing Mr. Lutterworth (1958), p.200

John Cage photo

“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.”

John Cage book Silence: Lectures and Writings

Source: Silence: Lectures and Writings

“How do you speak that all men may hear you in their own tongues? It is an art known and practiced by teachers of old.”

Desmond Leslie (1921–2001) British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician

The Amazing Mr. Lutterworth (1958)

Confucius photo

“How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to them! We look for them, but do not see them; we listen to, but do not hear them; yet they enter into all things, and there is nothing without them.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Doctrine of the Mean

Anthony de Mello photo

“When I speak, you must not listen to the words, my dear. Listen to the Silence.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Comprehension
One Minute Wisdom (1989)

Harper Lee photo

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Karen Blixen photo

“Where the storyteller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak. Where the story has been betrayed, silence is but emptiness. But we, the faithful, when we have spoken our last word, will hear the voice of silence.”

Karen Blixen book Last Tales

"The Blank Page"
Last Tales (1957)
Context: Why, you are to become a story teller, and I shall give you the reasons! Hear then: Where the storyteller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak. Where the story has been betrayed, silence is but emptiness. But we, the faithful, when we have spoken our last word, will hear the voice of silence. Whether a small snotty lass understands it or not.

Related topics