Prayerful Listening

Prayer is rightly defined as "the lifting of the mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God". (See the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2559) This is a classic definition given by St. John Damascene in his De Fide.(Of the Faith). St. Therese of Lisieux defined it this way: "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry or recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy." (CCC no. 2558). A more informal definition might be, "a conversation with God." No where do we hear it described as endless babbling of the tongue. Rather it is a movement of the heart and mind in silence. In the Book of Samuel, we have the perfect prelude to prayer, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." (1Sam 1:9). Can we do that, can we listen? Can we be quiet enough and thus open to hear what God wants to say? What would we think of a conversation with a friend, when the friend does all the talking, going on and on, and then abruptly says, "Well, Thanks...Good talking with you. Gotta go now", before we've even said a word? Is that how we treat God in our prayer?
Try just sitting quietly without words in God's presence. Hear the noise in the head as the day's scenario is projected, or the replay of yesterday's fills our thoughts. It's amazing how hard it is to be quiet, and no wonder we don't hear what God is trying to say to us. Makes one cringe and want to reach out for help. Being thus humbled is good for the soul and will be the incentive to make the needed changes in our prayer pattern...as we make changes in our eating and excercizing habits when we find ourselves 20 pounds overweight. ""Lord, I will keep my mouth shut and quiet my mind. Speak, for your servant is LISTENING!
Bro. Rene