The Heart That Can Hear

Today’s readings.

The spiritual masters teach that one danger in the spiritual life is that we can deceive ourselves about what we think we hear from God. Saint Gregory the Great cautioned that our vices often disguise themselves as virtues: harshness can appear as zeal for truth, laxity as mercy, extravagance as generosity. In other words, the human heart is capable of convincing itself that its own impulses are divine guidance. That is why Scripture repeatedly calls us not simply to listen, but to return: to come back to the Lord and learn again how to hear. 

Here, the spiritual masters offer us guidance: hearing God’s voice does not usually begin by searching for private messages. It begins by becoming the kind of people able to hear the Word already given. The small disciplines of Lent help with this. Prayer humbles us; almsgiving turns our love outwards; and fasting reorders our appetites. Slowly, through these simple acts, the heart can overcome the many competing voices of attachments to hear clearly what God has been calling out to it: love God and love neighbor. 

Today’s practice — Prayer:

Spend five quiet minutes today reading the greatest commandment from today’s Gospel reading (Mark 12:28–34). Ask God for the grace to hear His voice not through new messages, but through the Word already given, and end by praying: “Lord, help me love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.”