The Monthly Note
June 2010
Listen well…to pray!
by an anonymous author
With the month of June comes the sun, warm weather…and vacation time. A time for travelling, for resting, for lounging around, for visiting, for partying and, why not, for listening. Yes, why not. Because listening can be transformed in prayer. As a thanksgiving prayer for all the past wonders, as well as those we are presently living and for the ones to come. For the summer that is arriving, I recommend a ``listening`` prayer… Have a wonderful summer and vacations.
Jacques Lauzier, o.p.
In the midst of storms, of raging waves, of overpowering heat, listen to the soft and peaceful quivering of a soil where a spring comes to life, of a grain that sprouts, of a few cells that calls to life…
And maybe you, if you are a woman,
or with your cooperation, if you are a man, listen to the life of a person that is about to be born…
But, whatever may be, listen deep inside of you, in the midst of storms or of your weariness or of your sleepiness, listen to the life that makes you who you are.
Listen to the wind that pushes the clouds for the rain of life; the wind that quiver the trees under the thrust of life;the wind that makes your body tremble, your living body of pleasure, happiness and desires.
Listen to the top of the mountains and the waves of the sea, listen to the pits of the deep gorges in the center of the Earth…
Listen to them inviting you to discover, in you, all your brothers, the heights that Man can achieve and the deepness of his conscience and his heart.
Listen to the stones of the monuments that you visit. They tell you the story of men and women, your brothers and sisters. They tell you of the love and hatred, of faith and of prayer, of despair, of peace and war, of brotherhood and violence…They tell you the story of our humankind: the past and the present.
Listen to the songs, the rhythms and the cries of other countries that you do not know, even if you think you know them. Countries of other cultures, other spiritualities.
They tell you beauties and treasures of our humankind, of your humankind.
They invite you to joy, to celebration, but, also, to solidarity, to respect, to the struggle for humanity's respect. If you stay home, listen to those who come, who visit, who relax. They bring you a breath of fresh air from elsewhere; They tell you how immense the planet is. Give them your smile, let them approach you:
this is how peace, fraternity, friendship and meeting is build. Listen, be thankful and sing to life. Let praise, prayer and gratitude rise from within you.
Listen to this song inside of you, this prayer that tells you that kneaded from matter and earth… but also of Spirit. It is the Spirit that sings within you.
And the Spirit is life. Listen to the Spirit who tells you of your transcendence.
Who refuses the absurdity of nothingness to receive within you the Mystery of Life.
Yes, listen!
Prayer from an anonymous author for the Pastoral of Tourism.
