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| 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 Speak, Lord, your servant is listening |
In today’s First Reading we hear the
story of the child Samuel who was the servant of Eli. In his sleep Samuel heard
God calling. Thinking it was Eli he went three different times in the middle of
the night to see what his master wanted saying “here I am”. As a person of
faith Eli realized what was happening and told Samuel when he heard the call
again to respond: Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening.
God is always present to us and we can
hear His voice speaking to us if we listen. God does not use flashy or creative
commercials like we are used to hearing. Most times the voice of God does not
come in a crash of lightening or booming voice, but in a whisper. In order to
hear a whisper we need to be quiet. This means that we need moments of quiet in
our life, quiet both on the outside and on the inside.
-When
are the times in your day when we are not listening to TV, radio, computer,
music?
-Are
there times in the day when, even if we get a text, email or phone call we will
not answer or look at our phone because what we are doing is important?
-Are
there times in the day when we make sure we talk to God? Brushing our teeth,
before bed, before meals (even lunch at school or work), first thing in the
morning, in the car?
One of the most important things we
can do in our prayer is to spend time listening to God, not just talking on and
on but to focus on taking deep breaths in and out and to sit in silence or to
quietly meditate on a word or a phrase.
Try
this:
-After offering up your prayers to God
spend a minute repeating a word or a phrase like “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” or “Jesus, I love you”
or “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”. Pray the words quietly and
slowly and listen for God’s voice. If you have trouble doing this the first
time, try a second time.
Prayer, like sports, music, etc. takes
practice; don’t give up after the first time!
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