Seeing and Hearing

There is nothing spoken that will not be heard; there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

If we ourselves yearn to tell others the good news of what God is doing, how much more does the Spirit of love Himself yearn to reveal, to teach, to uncover the surprising action of God in our universe.  God does not "hide;" He is everywhere in plain sight---but we do not have the eyes we need to see Him at work nor ears to hear what He is saying.  Somewhere the Scripture says,

Morning by morning you open my ears
To hear the word you speak for the day at hand.

First, God speaks.  We hear, and our prayer is only a response to His words.  If our words come first, prayer is tiresome and hard.  But if God speaks first, and we hear, it is the most delightful conversation one can imagine.

St. Benedict always taught his monks that reading (lectio divina) comes before prayer and stimulates prayer.  He wanted the best part of the day, when the monks were fresh, devoted to reading, not when they were tired at the end of the day.  Most of us cannot pray because we do not first "prime the pump" by reading, then listening.  Once we get in the habit of listening, it is hard to "say prayers" because to do so, we have to stop listening. 

Open our ears, Lord, to hear Your voice; open our eyes to see Your hand of blessing in the smallest things......