Listening is an art and all we all need to ask God the grace of learning it well . The Lord Himself gives us this order: “Therefore, pay attention to how your hear!” (cf Lk 8:18)

The question is not in listening, but in how we listen. At times, we hear one thing and understand another; then, we reproduce information for another person in a distorted way and we generate disorder. Listening well means that we need to be silent.

It is a challenge to listen and be silent, but when the Lord asks us something, He gives us the grace to live it. We pray to God in order that we may be men and women who know to listen and to speak at the right time.

“The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to answer the weary a word that will waken them. Morning after morning he wakens my ear to hear as disciples do.” (Is 50:4-5b NAB)

Luzia Santiago

translated from Portuguese