MARK THIBODEAUX SUGGESTS in the Armchair Mystic that prayer evolves in four stages:
- talking at God: the lovely childlike prayers that are filled with lists of thank you, straight-forward asks and memorized graces and going-to-bed prayers
- talking to God: we find our own words and leans to monologues and intercede from our hearts about our own desires and needs.
- listening to God: the understanding that prayer iOS a dialogue that requires listening to God’s thoughts and not just my own
- being with God: the basis of contemplative prayers, which rest in God’s presence without concern for what prayer activity is going on
Once our minds frenetically jump from tasks to worries, from demands to disappointments and from fears to escape habits, we need a discipline that quiets us and helps us to listen for God’s voice. Listening prayer turns us away from elaborate internal commentaries, noisy inner chaos and catastrophic thinking (which makes things worse). It invites us to let go of the dramatic internal dialogues and listen to a voice besides our own or that of the evil one….
So one can conjure up God or force God to speak. So, listening prayer is never in my control. When I say, like Samuel, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9-10), I will place myself in a place to hear when God speaks. Developing an ear that recognizes God’s voice and that listens to your life opens up the possibility offering from God through anyone or anything. Practice listening to God and you will develop a heart tuned to the pitch and timbre of God’s word to you….
If nothing seems to be happening in our prayer, if God seems silent, we return to the truth that we are not separate from God. We may not “hear” a specific word, but God is near, closer than our won breath, abiding deep within. Our part is to faithfully show up, seek, knock, and refuse to engage inner dialogue with our distractions.
Persevering in listening prayer is an act of trust that God is present beyond the words (or in the words)…
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES:
First, consider your own listening skills. When do you interrupt? How alert are you to body language? When you want to add a thought to a conversation, how attentive ar you to what is actually being said. How are you with eye contact? Where might you need to grow in listening skills?
- Practice lectio divina as a form of listening prayer. Read a short portion of Scripture and listen for a word or phrase to light up. Let that set the agenda for your prayer.
- Listen to worship music. What captures your heart? Repeat the words to yourself. Hear Jesus speaking these words to you. Let the words rest inside you and quiet your heart.
- When you start to pass judgment on your praying and listening skills, stop. Turn to Jesus and imagine how happy he is that you have turned back to him rather than engage in a diatribe against the one he lives. Listen to the loving words Jesus says to you.
- This week practice not interrupting. Just listen. What do you learn about someone that you never knew because you listened deeply?