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 in boredom,
in certainty and doubt,
in noise and in silence.
Teach me, Lord, to listen.
Amen.
~~Leo Veltri, SJ