Pray and Listen from the Heart

[Mark Dohle]

Pray and Listen from the Heart

I shall speak to you, I shall speak to your heart, so that you may hear My voice for the joy of your heart. You will hear My voice especially when you will come before My Face, when you will adore My Eucharistic Face and draw near to My open Heart. I will speak to your heart as I spoke to the heart of My beloved disciple John, the friend of My Heart, the priest of My open Heart.

Monk, A Benedictine. In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart
--The Journal of a Priest at Prayer (p. 22). Angelico Press. Kindle Edition.​

I remember when I was a teenager, the first time I listened to the song “The Sound of Silence”. It made an impact on me and brought out more than one emotion. One aspect of the song for me was the loneliness that seemed to be brought to the fore of the people who are speaking but then there is no one who listens. The song brought out in me a nameless longing, and to this day it still does.

I wonder how God experiences us. He speaks softly, in a whisper, a slight push to go this way and not that. If there is no inner listening does God only experience a void from all of us, his children? We all know when someone ‘sees’ us, listens to us. It is healing to experience such an advent, but it is sad to say rarer than we might want to believe. So, with God, who being love also desires for us to see ‘Him’ as well as to listen. That is prayer, true prayer from the heart.

To draw near to God’s open heart, that is a challenge I believe. A heart that is not petty, or needy, but seeks and desires our love. It is a type of love that goes way beyond anything we can do, or perhaps have experienced directly. So, the desert experience is a long one, and as we thirst for God, and seek the living water, it keeps us moving forward.

As intimacy with God deepens, the realization may come that all along it is the Lord who invites, draws us, lifts us up when we fall, or wander off for a time. We are pursued, and the longer we stay on the path, we begin to experience God’s love, freely given, always there. The more we listen in prayer, the more profound the healing. Grace, grace, grace all the way down, up, and sideways. We swim in it yet may not know it.

As long as we live, there is hope. To open up our hearts to the saving grace of Jesus can happen anytime on our lifelong journey. Let us make sure we do not interfere with anyone who is also seeking God and struggling to find their way. We are each loved, that is why we are called to love our enemies, to pray for those who hate us, to keep our hearts open. Prayer does that……pray, pray, pray.-Br.MD