Listening to God

The phone would ring and my daughter, Chrissy, would answer it. She'd say "Hello," and would stand there for quite a while not saying a word. Every time that happened, I knew it would be her friend, Sally. The pattern was unmistakable. I think when we call God and He picks up His phone, we launch into our prayers and He stands there like Chrissy listening to what we have to say. There is very little exchange, if any.

I grew up before Vatican II and prayer, as we knew it then, was the recitation of prayers we had memorized. Or, if we used our own words, we would talk to God. As with Sally, there was no exchange. It was one-way prayer. When I was in my forties, my spiritual director, Fr.Bob McCreary asked, after I had shared a difficulty with him, "What did Jesus say to you about that?" I did not know what Fr.Bob meant. "What do you mean, 'What did Jesus say?' I didn't know He said anything." No one had ever told me that God speaks to us in prayer. I thought that happened only with saints and mystics.

Fr. Bob then proceeded to teach me Listening Prayer just as I taught it to some of you. First, we ask our Lady to help us. Then we quiet ourselves down, taking deep breaths, and call to mind that Jesus is truly present to us. Visualize Him standing in front of you because He is. Look into His face, especially His eyes and the love there as He gently asks you, "What would you like me to do for you?" At this point you give Him the things that are at the top of your heart - those things that concern you the most: you relationships, your main difficulties, your health issues, your fears, your worries, such. When you are done giving them over to Him, you give Him what is at the bottom of your heart which would be your sin.

Your sin is whatever it is that keeps you from being closer to God. It may be something as simple as not giving Him time or attention. It could be clinging to a behavior that separates you from Him. Or just not giving Him any room in your life. After you give that to Him, find a story in the Gospels to read.

As you read this gospel, put yourself in the scene so that you become part of the story. As an example, I will share with you my first experience with this. The story Fr. Bob picked was from St. John's gospel: Chapter 21, verse 7. Fr. Bob asked, "Who are you in this story? Peter? John? Another apostle? Jesus?"

I answered immediately, "I am Peter."

Father said, "You decided that too fast. Think some more."

And I said, "I am Peter. I feel great kinship with him because we have the same tendencies. We are impulsive, rash, quick to anger, and we stick our limbs into our mouths habitually."

"Okay," Father said, "what is happening now?"

"I just jumped off the boat and I am swimming furiously towards Jesus."

"Whar are your feelings?"

"I am very excited! That's why I jumped off the boat. I want to be with Jesus the soonest possible."

"Now what's happening?"

"It is shallow enough now for me to be walking towards Jesus and as the water comes to my ankles I run towards Him."

"Has He seen you? What is He doing?"

"He is hurrying towards me."

FLASHBACK: Just before coming to see Fr. Bob, I had gone to Mass and as I stood in line to receive Communion, the prayer that popped into my head was, "Lord, help me not to be so cuckoo."

Back to the gospel scene. As I run up to Jesus, He reaches out, tousles my hair and says with great tenderness, "But you ARE cuckoo. I made you cuckoo, I love you cuckoo. Be cuckoo!"

All my life, I had wanted to be other than who I was. Now, Jesus Himself was giving me permission to be who I really am. You have no idea how liberated I felt.

Fr. Bob said, "I think you've got it!"

We then thanked our Lady for her help.

To be continued... "How do we know it is God talking to us and not us talking to ourselves?"