Listen!

Be Still ...
 

and Know Something of God!

Prayer is the practice of listening to God.

Do you have within you the desire to become a great lover of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Do you want others to say of you, when you come to the end of your life, "God must have loved her so much, she was such a loving woman!".

Then learn one of the great arts of loving — learn to listen.

Listen, means to hear, to give ear too, and in a biblical sense, it means to obey, because that which we hear from God, we should then do and put into practise.

Listening to another is one of the great services of love: to be willing to give another time and attention, to listen to what they say, and to listen also to their silences, because that, too, can teach us much.

When we listen to another, give them the time and opportunity to verbalize their feelings, their ideas, their opinions, no matter how haltingly or poorly delivered, we can learn so much about them ... and indeed about God.

A listening heart is a loving heart.

We all know that kind of situation where another presents us with a statement, an opinion, and all too often we interject, do not give them the chance to finish, or we show open disagreement before even hearing what they are really attempting to say.

Or that communal situation where several people all talk on top of one another, and no one is listening: all are concerned with their own opinion and perspective. You may prove that you can dominate the group, outwit them, out-speak them ... but have you learned anything? Have you really tried to understand the perspective, the cry of the other?

Have you met God in that situation, or have you celebrated your own existence?

Patient listening, on the other hand – time given in love – has the potential to bring a great deal of inner healing to another. Listening can diffuse our own judgmental attitudes, because we may well see and understand the other in a better light.

Listening is a sure way to Holiness, because the other becomes for us the focus, we have to die to our own desire to be at the centre of the stage, and rather allow the humanity of another to shine.

Sometimes we can be in a group and an individual may make what seems to us an outrageous
statement, totally unrelated to the discussion, but if we allow them to finish, we may often see their fears, their pain, and respond in a way that would bring healing to them.

It is very important to learn and grow in the ability to listen because it effects how we pray.

To the degree that we listen to others, so we will listen — or not listen — to God, being drawn into the temptation of making our prayer a monologue ...

Listen, to God, to life, to others, to the universe that surrounds us ... listen and you will learn much of love and beauty.

So many times God calls us through his Word, Hear! Listen!

He wants our whole and undivided attention – which we also want when we speak, and which we, in all love and humility — and in turn — owe others ...

 

A Poor Clare Colettine Nun

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