Can You Hear me Now?

Speak, Lord Jesus; I will listen. You do not come to my soul without speaking to me in some way. Please make your presence known in the heart and mind of faith.  I will be quiet, and let my desires and worries rest, in order to hear you. In silence, I will learn to know your intimate will in my regard. Amen.  

 God speaks to us. He whispers to us, talks to us, yells at us.                                                               

Most times, to get humans to listen, He has to take out His Divine 2x4 and hit us over the head. The Lord will talk to us everyday at every moment if we let Him.  He will never stop trying to have a conversation with us.  He wants to tell us things, He wants us to know Him. But we are a blind and deaf people.  We sit for five minutes asking God to talk to us and when we don't hear anything right away, we stop listening.  We think that He doesn't care, or we haven't got an answer. There are only a few people in the Bible that I can think of off the top of my head to whom God spoke directly, Adam, Cain, Noah, Moses, Samuel, Jesus, and Paul. I'm sure there are others but you get the point. There aren't that many compared to the number of people who lived are living and will live.  God doesn't just say, "Olivia, I want you to pray for this, this, and that." He doesn't just say, "Go and enter this specific religious order when you are 20 years old."   He doesn't talk to us the way we want Him too.  He talks to us the way we need to Him to.

Sometimes, if we ask Him enough, He will answer us. Through a "divine 2x4" to the back of the head.  You all have probably experienced this in one way or another.  The same topic coming up over and over and over again. I experienced this only a few months ago.  I had been feeling a bit useless, not in a depressed way mind you, but in a spiritual way.  I wanted to do something for people but didn't know what.  I wanted to do something that would help them get to God. So I prayed, and prayed. I went on like this, complaining to God in my prayers for a week or so.  It didn't feel like I had gotten or was going to get  an answer anytime soon.

  Some days later, while cleaning, I came across a scapular I had bought while at a summer youth conference that I had never gotten blessed.  It was the Our Lady of Ransom scapular. "On August 1, 1218 the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Peter, to his confessor...and to King James I, and through these three servants of God, established a work of the most perfect charity, the redemption of captives"  

Nowadays the Our Lady of Ransom scapular is used for the liberation of souls from purgatory. I didn't think much about it until that night, when reading about the saints, I found the story of St. Faustina, and St. Catherine of Sienna.  They both had visions dealing with the souls of purgatory. I started getting interested.  A few days later there was another incident again pointing to the Holy souls.  This was where I decided I would pray about it, and what did I come upon? A novena for the souls in purgatory.  

I finally said thank you Lord. Because He answered me. And now I have a responsibility. To pray for souls.  And He hasn't let me forget it.  Every Sunday I offer up my receiving of the Eucharist for the liberation of souls. I pray for them often and when I hear news of someone dying, or who has recently died, I get an annoying feeling in my gut that won't go away until I've prayed for that person.

God answers you, but you have to listen for it. For Him.  He won't shout it out of the sky, but if you are persistent enough there might be a divine 2x4 involved. :) Pray my friends with sincerity, earnestness, and love. And be patient, for He will answer.