But I was glad I had recorded for him The melancholy. —Patrick Kavanagh, “Wet Evening in April” “Interior and exterior silence are necessary in order to hear the Word,” Pope Benedict told the massed pilgrims in St Peter’s Square on March 7, 2012, on the last of his catacheses on the personal prayer of Jesus, specifically on Christ’s silence on the cross. He hardly had to point the lesson—“our age does not, in fact, favour reflection and contemplation”. In a civilisation attended by constant noise, the Pope had to tell his audience not be afraid of silence, for when…