A young priest in his first parish notices that many are falling sleep in his homilies. He asks the elder priest, "Father, I can't seem to give an effective sermon. People fall asleep. What can I do?"
"Well, my boy, it's all a matter of practice. For the next week prop a mirror in front of you, and practice your sermon. Add some gestures. Vary your voice tone. That kind of thing."
Come Friday, the two priests are having lunch. The Elder priest asks. "Well, how did it go?"
"I'm not sure," replies the young man.
"How so?"
"I fell asleep."
I wonder sometimes just how awake we are spiritually. How hard is it for us to hear the Lord? How wonderful and reassuring it would be to know what God is saying to us.
In Fr. John Powell's book Happiness is an Inside Job he tells the story of a young woman who had not been living a good life, had given up all hope and decided it was best to just end it. She walked down to the ocean planning to swim out as far as she could and then let nature do the rest.
As she walked on the beach she heard a distinct voice say, "Stop, turn around and look down." When she did this she could see her own footprints in the sand. As she watched, the ocean waves rushed in and obliterated her footprints.
Again she heard a voice say, "Just as you see the waves of the ocean washing away your footprints on the sand, so has my love and mercy erased all your past. I am calling you to live and to love, not to die." By instinct she knew it was the voice of God. It turned her life around.
A friend of mine was asked recently, "How does God speak to you?" After some thought she replied, "When I meditate, I can hear His words very clearly; in fact, I often have deep conversations with the Lord. And sometimes, there is a silence so pure, that one simply blends into the air, and feels nothing but God's embrace."
She continues, "I cannot really separate myself from the Lord, and place Him into a time slot for a meeting. He is present with me at every moment, in all that I do. My conversations with Him are not apart, but on-going, as I eat and move and do everything.
"He's not just present in a church. He's not a once a week visit on a Sunday, to fulfill a duty. He's in these hands that type, this heart that beats, this brain that thinks, these joints and muscles that are giving me hell at the moment. I can no more separate Him from myself, thanI cantake out my heart, for both are life-giving, and to remove eitherwould mean death."
"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). God calls to us through scripture and through the events of everyday life. We need to attune ourselves to listen.
