FOUR KEYS TO AN EFFECTIVE PRAYER LIFE:

KEY 4: LISTENING TO GOD

For the past three weeks I have been sharing with you keys to an effective prayer life. If you missed the first three keys and would like to read them you can go to our parish website www.ascensioncatholic.net, click on Fr. Tobin's Writings and then click on Prayer and Spirituality.

Key #4 - Listening to God

"Oh that today you would hear his voice:
And harden not your hearts"
 Psalm 95:7-8

"Listening is a real art
which some people never learn.
We all have experienced people
who cannot or do not listen.
They hear but they do not understand;
their bodily ears pick up sound,
but hearts are not attentive to its meaning. The good pray-er
is above all a good listener"
Fr. Tom Green, S.J.

I assume that all of us would say that we believe that in our communication with God, what he has to say to us is much more important than what we need to say to him. Yet in practice, it seems we believe that what God has to say to us is not the more important of the two. All too often we rush into our place of prayer, say our prayers, do our reading, and then rush away without ever giving God much chance to speak to us. If we treated our friends like this, we would lose them. God created us with two ears and one mouth, hoping perhaps that we would listen twice as much as we would speak. If that was God's intention, not very many of us got the message.

Six Attitudes Needed to Become a Good Listener in Prayer.

  • We need faith to believe that God actually does communicate with us mortals and that he does want to communicate with me personally.

  • We need selflessness because listening always demands the ability and willingness to put aside our own need to talk or our desire to be center stage, so that we can listen to others and give them center stage.

  • We need patience because God does not always speak to us according to our time schedule. He tells us so himself, "My way, not your ways" (Isaiah 55:8).

  • We need to develop a reflective attitude toward life so that we can learn to "read and interpret" God's messages as they come to us in the events and encounters of daily life.

  • We need courage because God may sometimes ask us to travel places we'd prefer not to go. Remember the story of Jonah who took the first ship out of port to get away from God (Jonah 1:1-2:11). Recall what Jesus himself said to Peter: "When you grow old . . someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go" (John 21:18).

  • Above all, we need to have a deep desire to have God communicate with us. The old saying, "the master will speak when the student is ready", applies here. Perhaps the main reason God does not communicate with us is because we are not ready to hear his word. If we live comfortable lives and feel we are in control of things, the last thing we may want is for God to speak a word to us.

    It is important for us to be aware that most, but more likely, all of us have a deep resistance to opening our hearts to God. Why? Because we are scared of what he may ask of us. After all he asked the Cross of his own beloved Son. He asked a lot of the early martyrs of the church.

    How God May Speak To Us.

    Assuming we believe that God does want to communicate with us, we might ask: How might he speak?

  • Through writings. While we honor the Bible as the inspired word of God and regard spiritual classics as a great source of spiritual nourishment, it is important for us to remember that God may speak to us through any type of book. I am sure all of us have had a sense that God was speaking to us as we read a good novel or biography of a great person. Having said that, when it comes to reading we should always give priority to the sacred scriptures and other inspired writings that have touched others for centuries.

  • Through the movies, TV, art and music, great movies, television shows, great art and music can speak to us very powerfully about the majesty and the awesome beauty of God and about life in general.

  • Events and encounters of daily life. After a conversation with a friend or even a stranger, we may feel that God communicated with us. For this to happen, we usually need to take time to reflect upon encounters with others or the various events of life.

  • God's creation. In Her poem, Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes:

    Earth's crammed with heaven,
    And every common bush is afire with God;
    But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
    The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

    Creation is sometimes called the first sacrament. It speaks to us of the beauty and majesty of God. We are blessed when we are moved to spend time enjoying this first Sacrament of God's goodness.

    In his spiritual classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, the famous spiritual director, Jean Pierre de Caussade writes:

    There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or some duty, and all that takes place within, around us, and through us both includes and hides his activity. . . . If we could lift the veil and if we watched with vigilant attention, God would endlessly reveal himself to us. . . .It is faith, which interprets God for us. Without its light we should not even know that God was speaking but would hear only the confused, meaningless babble of creatures. As Moses saw the flame of fire in the bush and heard the voice of God coming from it, so faith will enable us to understand his hidden signs, so that amidst all the apparent clutter and disorder we shall see all the loveliness and perfection of divine wisdom.

    Discerning God's Voice

    On any given day, we may be led by the Holy Spirit, the evil spirit or our own human spirit. Discerning which voice may be speaking to us or moving us in a particular direction is rarely easy to discern. Unfortunately, because Satan is very cunning and can disguise himself as the angel of light (2 Cor 11:3-14) and because of our stubborn sinful nature we could easily think we are following the leadings of the Holy Spirit when in fact we are following our own selfish desires or worse still we may be following Satan. In this area, a good one-liner prayer is:

    Holy Spirit, protect me from following
    the false ways of Satan and my own
    selfish desires and help me to know
    and follow your leadings.

    Also, it is an excellent practice to pray frequently, if not daily, that little prayer to our guardian angel:

    O angel of God, my guardian dear,
    to whom God's love commits me here.
    Ever this day, be at my side, to light
    and guard, to rule and guide. Amen

    Recently, I have started to pray that prayer in the morning and evening. How foolish of us not to seek the protection, guidance and help of our assigned heavenly body (and spirit) guard.

    Learning to hear and discern the voice of God is both a gift and an art. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, which we need to receive frequently and an art to learn by trial and error (1 Corinthians 12:10). Getting to know the voice of God is somewhat like getting to know the voice of a newfound friend. At first we do not readily recognize our friend's voice on the phone. But as the friendship grows we recognize the person's voice as soon as we hear the word "Hi." If we live our lives in the company of Jesus, we will become more and more familiar with his voice.

    Reflection Questions

  • What spoke to you most in this column?

  • How easy or hard is it for you to listen in prayer? What are the obstacles and helps?

    Prayer Exercise

    This week make a special effort to be attentive to any messages God may seek to communicate to you through your readings, encounters with people, events, TV, movies and creation.

    The following prayer was given to me by a woman whose spouse walked out on her. She said the prayer helped her a lot.

    Lord, speak to me in such a way
    That I may surely know -
    The purpose that You have for me;
    The path that I must go.

    Then, when the pathway is made clear,
    And the journey I begin;
    When fear and doubt start creeping in -
    Please speak to me again.

    Remind me of Your presence, Lord,
    Each mile along the way.
    Let not my steps grow weary -
    Keep speaking, lest I stray.

    The roadblocks will be many,
    Dead ends I'm sure to see;
    But I'll reach my destination, Lord,
    Because You spoke to me.
    -D. Sue (Jones) Horton