10 November 2021
Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
You have had enough of God’s words. You already studied the Bible and theology. You heard so many sermons that they are all blending together. Have you spent hours spent in prayer? Yes, past counting. At this point, you have got it all pretty well figured out. You can be confident that you already know what God would say or what God would do, so you don’t need to hear from Him any more.
Is that how it is with you? Are you really so full of pride? Then make this your motto for today: “Desire therefore my words; long for them and you shall be instructed” (Wisdom 6:11). Ask the Lord to give you a deep desire for his words, for his revelation.
You have your own ideas, and that’s nice, but that’s not enough. It is not enough to listen to yourself saying what you think God would say. Beware lest, perhaps by accident, you become deaf to what God actually does say. He is not just some tired and predictable system of ideas: he is a personal being. He is rational and He is free. Ask for the desire to hear Him. He speaks according to his good pleasure, freely and rationally, and much better than you do. Spend time, then, retraining your desire to hear His voice.