“And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.”1 Sam 3:1
This is how the Bible describes the situation the prophet Samuel grew up in. While the people did have access to Sacred Scripture, they did not hear his word through prophets, angels or in their hearts very often. On top of that, almost no one was receiving visions from God! Sound familiar?
This aptly describes most people’s perception of our own time. When I teach about prayer, I always incorporate time to practice praying. Afterward, when people share what they said to God, I always ask, “And then what did God say?” Most of the time, their heads tilt as perplexed expressions settle over their faces. It’s as if most of us expect God to say nothing.
God does talk. If we are struggling to understand what he is saying to us, it’s probably because we do not understand his language. Human beings first learn language inside their homes, from their families, and it’s no different with God. He is our Father and the Church is our home. If we do not learn the language of God there first, we will not be able to hear or understand it in the rest of the world.
Hearing in the spiritual sense is a little different than hearing audibly. When we speak about receiving words, messages or answers from God in prayer, we are talking about receiving or hearing in the heart.
The Heart (Thoughts, Feelings and Desires)
We experience and navigate everything in life with our minds and our hearts. The mind can be easy to understand; it analyzes, evaluates and informs. The heart is a bit trickier. When we say heart, we are referring, in general, to our thoughts, feelings and desires. When we pray, the heart is the place where we hear God.
If you are praying with a Scripture story, as you read it and reflect, what is moving in your heart? What thoughts, feelings or desires come to you while you pray? Most of us experience these, but we do not acknowledge them often because we assume they come from us and not God. While the thoughts, feelings and desires we experience sometimes come from us, the heart is also a natural place for God to speak from because, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God has made his home in our hearts. We should expect him to speak from there rather than hearing a voice from outside.
When we acknowledge a thought, feeling or desire, our next step should be to tell God all about it. Tell him what made us think, feel or desire something in Scripture. Tell him about the train of thought that led there. Give him your personal analysis of why the thought, feeling or desire came up. Tell him all about it! Why do we tell God this? Because it would be awkward and rude not to acknowledge what someone has said if we’re in conversation with them, and, after all, prayer is a conversation with God and the Scriptures are his Word. It’s even more disrespectful to try to move the conversation on to something else as if the other person said nothing.
If we talk to God about what he brought up in our hearts, he will likely respond the same way he did the first time: in thoughts, feelings and desires. When we are in the habit of paying attention to God’s movements in our hearts, we can turn to other sources of grace and receive even more from God there.
Beginning at Home: Scripture & Sacraments
God speaks to us primarily through Sacred Scripture and the Sacraments. In these two places, we learn God’s words, ways and heart. We learn everything we ever need to know about God through these two sources. The more fluent we become in Scripture and Sacraments, the more we hear, see, perceive and partner with God everywhere.
Because the Bible is the Word of God, he is speaking in and through the words of Scripture. In the Letter to the Hebrews we read, “The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” (Heb 4:12). It is a common experience for Christians, and soon-to-be Christians, to pick up the Bible and read something that spoke directly to them or something they need to hear in that moment.
Beyond the chance encounters with the word of God, the Church offers us a deliberate order of receiving and meditating on the word of God in the Lectionary (the readings at Mass) and the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours. The Church has arranged these readings in a cycle, and, in my experience, they serve almost as a map that helps us journey through the spiritual life. When we regularly pray with these readings, we find that the message we receive in prayer is not only relevant to our present moment but builds upon a greater narrative written throughout our lives.
The other incredibly rich place that we find God speaking is in the sacraments. The rituals themselves intend to communicate what God is doing and saying in the sacrament. Sometimes, it can be difficult to pay attention to the words and gestures of the liturgy, or we have heard them so many times in Mass that they have become routine. However, just like the Lectionary, the prayers and the words of the Mass are tailored for each day of the liturgical year and guide us along the spiritual life.
God Wants You to Hear Him
Being aware and relating the movements of our hearts to God helps us grow in friendship with him. When we do so in the Scriptures, especially the Lectionary, Liturgy of the Hours and Sacraments, we grow in our identity as his people. He wants us to know him both individually and communally. We each have a unique relationship with him, yet we all share the family name.
God’s language is not complicated, nor is it only for hyper-spiritual people. The biggest barrier to learning any language is a lack of exposure to it. If you only hear the Scriptures when they are read at Mass and only attend Mass once a week, you have met your obligation, but it is not enough to learn God’s language. If you took a Mandarin class once a week for one hour, you would eventually learn a few words and phrases, but you would never become fluent. There is no substitute for time in learning a language. If you want to hear him, spend time with him. If you want the God edition of Rosetta Stone, read the Bible daily and frequent the sacraments.
May the Lord open our ears to his voice and our hearts to his promptings!
