“That’s how God listens to us.” Fr. Robert Presuttie said this during the half-day retreat at Divine Mercy University. The curious statement caught my attention.
The retreat was tucked away in a five-day spiritual direction residency devoted to practicing listening skills. Each day the students would practice role-playing different scenarios that a spiritual director might encounter. They weren’t doing spiritual direction but practicing the foundational skill that makes for a good spiritual director: Deep listening.
As an adjunct faculty member, I facilitated the role-plays, offered suggestions, and evaluated the students’ use of these skills. These skills included silence, presence, affirmation, empathy, and images. The goal for the students was to deepen the other’s emotional and spiritual awareness.
Fr. Presuttie’s comment made me ask, “Is that really how God listens to me?”
I brought this to prayer the following week. Too often my prayer, especially in times of spiritual desolation, takes the form of a lament: “Aren’t you listening?!?” This past week, I changed the question. “God, how are you listening to me?”
Indeed, once I calmed my anxious thoughts and entered that sacred place of simply being with my creator, I realized God is the most excellent listener. In the silence, God was listening to my heart, validating my feelings, and affirming me as a beloved son. I pray outside early in the morning, and the metaphors abounded in the silent movement of the stars, the whispering of the trees in the breeze, and the awakening songs of the birds.
A question I often ask in spiritual direction is this, “Is there an image that comes to mind?” I pondered how God listens to me, and an image came to mind. A few months ago, I saw a father walking his young son down the beach on Emerald Isle. In the half-light of the early morning, they were admiring the sunrise. Hand in hand, the two walked in silence. The boy probably had running through his mind a mix of thoughts, from the night’s terrors to the wonders of the morning. Yet walking with his father, the boy felt affirmed, validated, understood, and beloved. If his heart put these feelings into words, it would say, “I am walking with my father, and my father is listening to me.”
If you are having trouble hearing God in prayer, maybe use the same image, or reframe the question to “Father, how are you listening to me today?”