Teach Me To Listen

Teach me to listen, O 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 busyness and boredom, in certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence.

Teach me, O God, to listen.

John Veltri, SJ
Orientations