The hearing of the sayings was a widespread event. It was understood by all who heard it to be a wonderful communication, and it changed their attitudes from the active process of grief to one of wonder. Rather than continue their culturally prescribed modes of audible and visual mourning, they fell silent, contemplating what they had heard. There may have been some conversation about what they had heard, but clearly they had all heard, and now their focus was no longer on the past, but this event and probably the expectation that something else might happen. The silence for hours shows the depth of the effect that this had on them. They did not return to normal; that was impossible. They did not return to mourning; that had been superceded. They waited.