Step four on St. John’s Ladder of Divine Ascent, as I began sharing with you in the last issue of the article, is the first of several fundamental virtues: obedience. The virtue of obedience is a state of mind, a condition of the heart, and a way of acting that is rooted in humility. It is self-mistrust up to one’s dying day, in every matter, even the good. But to whom are we to be obedient? It may seem blindingly obvious, but we are obedient, above all, to God. And this is expressed not only in living like Jesus lived, but also in the action of prayer.

Only an obedient heart can truly pray, for the end of prayer is not speaking to God, but hearing and heeding what He is saying back to us. Furthermore, only a humble person can really pray, because only when we are humble do we not rely wholly on our own judgments, actions and capabilities.

During my almost fifty years as a priest I have found that this is one of the most difficult things for people to learn how to do, even the well-intentioned people who desire to grow in their faith. Learning how to listen to God is so very difficult. Most people tell me that they try speaking with God but never hear anything back from him.

I believe that the problem is that when we typically pray we tend to be asking for something and we desire a certain outcome. Seldom do we really pray for whatever life delivers to us. Jesus taught us on the night   before He died that the key to hearing God’s response to our prayer is making sure that we are ready to accept whatever life delivers to us. This also takes a deep belief that God designed life to deliver those unique challenges that can help us to grow. This also requires us to believe that challenges are neither good nor bad. They are just challenges which can help us to grow.