Listen...

"Teach me to listen, My Caring God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends,
my co-workers.

Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is, "Accept the person I am. Listen to me."

Teach me to listen, My Caring God, to those far from me -- the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid, to trust the voice inside -- in the deepest part of me.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your
voice--in the busyness and in boredom, in
certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence. Teach me, O God, to listen."

from John Veltri, SJ Orientations