ASK WITH FATHER TIM - EP 5
HOW DO WE HEAR GOD EASIER?
When we pray, we tend to do so much of the talking. Or people rely on books and Sacramento's like the Rosary. And there's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing wrong with praying with the book or just praying the rosary.
But we really want to make sure that at some point our prayer becomes a conversation with God, and we shouldn't be the one that's doing all the talking. If we want God to answer our prayers, we can't just offer those prayers and then walk away. We have to sit and listen.
But we really want to make sure that at some point our prayer becomes a conversation with God, and we shouldn't be the one that's doing all the talking. If we want God to answer our prayers, we can't just offer those prayers and then walk away. We have to sit and listen.
We see some beautiful examples of that in the scripture when we see there was Martha, Mary of Bethany. Martha was kind of the busybody, always in the kitchen, was upset that her sister would not help her. Jesus chastised Martha and commended Mary for sitting silently at his feet because she understood she was in the presence of God.
We also see this at times in the lives of the saints.
Saint John Vianney, the patron of confessors, who was a parish priest in France in the 19th century. He had a farmer's wife come to him one day and complain about her husband, who was always in the church instead of out in the fields doing his chores.
And she wanted John Vianney to go get him and make him get out of that church and go back to work. And John said, I'll take care of it. And so he observed the man who for hours a day would sit there doing nothing in the church, but he wasn't falling asleep. And finally, Saint John Vianney asked the farmer what happens when you pray? And the man referenced the tabernacle and the crucifix over it and said, I look at him and he looks at me.
That was someone that just simply couldn't be torn away from the presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the altar. He didn't say anything. Maybe he didn't hear anything, but he knew that he was in the presence of God.
It once again boils down to find those quiet spaces and places, and devoted time for a prayer that is that conversation.
And much like a conversation with another person. If we're doing all the talking, it's not a conversation that's a monologue, and we're not acting in a stage play. We're working off the divine drama of our salvation, and that involves speaking to God and letting God speak to us.
Then we have to listen. We might be surprised at what we hear.
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