"My sheep hear my voice" John 10:27

“My sheep hear my voice” John 10:27
May 8, 2022

Sweet 5-year-old Megan was sent to her room again for mischievous behavior. But this time, I had a plan. I quickly ran back down the stairs and exclaimed, “Mom, God spoke to me!” My mom asked, “Really Megan, what is it that God said to you?” I responded with a deep, thundering voice, “Megan, you do not need to go to your room.”

I thought God’s voice would be something unfamiliar and loud. I thought God needed to yell at me from the outside for me to hear Him, as if God was far off or I had seriously impaired hearing. I had failed to discover the generous gift of my Baptism. God is so close to us. On the day of our Baptism, we became temples of the Holy Spirit with God dwelling in our hearts. He is within us constantly, in our moments of joy and in our difficult moments of suffering. He goes through those experiences with us. In the Old Testament, only the chosen prophets heard God’s voice and they communicated that to God’s people. Yet, we are no longer Old Testament Jews. When Jesus came, He established a new covenant. We entered this new covenant in the sacrament of Baptism. In receiving this sacrament, we were all anointed priests, prophets, and kings (CCC 1241). As prophets, we have been given the ability to hear God’s voice and to speak God’s voice as words of encouragement to those around us. God does not need to yell at us from far off for us to hear Him: He is not far away, and we aren't spiritually deaf. God whispers to us from within. It is in the silence of the heart that God speaks.

Because He is so close and because He is so gentle, sometimes we can mistake His voice for our own. Simply repeat your name to yourself in the silence of your mind. As you engage in that activity, can you hear something? That sound is a lot like the voice that God can use to speak to us. God does not ignore our humanity or the fact that we are sensorial beings. God speaks to us through our own mental capacities and senses. With the sense of feeling, in prayer we may be filled with a sense of peace, joy, confidence, conviction or even anger. Or, with the sense of sight, can you imagine the picture of an apple in your mind? Just like seeing that apple, we can receive images from God in prayer. With the faculty of memory, God can bring up a moment in your life and reveal His presence and love to you there in that moment as another way to speak to you. A helpful key to distinguish if something is just from you or not, is to recognize if it kind of surprises you to be hearing, feeling, seeing, or remembering what you are receiving in prayer. If so, maybe it's not from you but the person you are talking to, God. The next consideration is, what are the fruits? Is what you are receiving in prayer fostering peace, love, joy, and faithfulness to the teaching authority of the Church? Those are fruits of the Holy Spirit and a sign of God’s presence and guiding voice.

Some people may wonder if they are holy enough to hear God’s voice. Hearing God’s voice does not work like that. It is not about whether you deserve to hear God’s voice, because you don't. Hearing God's voice is a gift that God desires to give you. It is not based on what you do, it is about who you are. It's simple, God is your shepherd, you are His sheep, and His sheep hear His voice. In my own experience, it has actually been when I am ‘least holy,’ not put together, and most brutally honest that I have heard God speak most clearly. No matter what, we can always be real and raw before God because any shame or embarrassment or fear is absorbed by the ever-present reality of His merciful love.

It is important to come to prayer with expectant faith. If you don't believe you can hear God’s voice, it's not very likely that you will hear Him. That being said, there is a mystery in our communication with God. We can trust that He wants to speak to us and that when we do need to hear Him, He will speak. When we do not hear Him, we can hope that we will again hear Him soon; we can go back to words of consolation we have received or read words of scripture that communicate everlasting truths.

Why not go for it right now? Ask God this question in your heart: what do you think of me right now? Take a moment of silence. Do you receive anything? What do you sense, hear, or feel? Share that with your family and friends. Or, try again and ask the question: Jesus, how are you loving me right now in my life? Again, what do you receive?

When you are receiving from God in prayer, it is good to be excited and grateful for that—divine intimacy is amazing! Yet, you must also not be cocky about it: receiving from God in prayer does not make you better than others and silence in prayer also is a gift. In a letter to her sister, St Therese of Lisieux writes, “The weaker souls He charmed by His divine eloquence with the aim of strengthening them against the day of temptation and trial, but His faithful friends were few that day when ‘He was silent’ in the presence of His judges. Sweet melody to my heart is that silence of the Divine Master!” [1] Silence in prayer can be an opportunity to show yourself as a faithful friend to Jesus. There are different seasons in our spiritual journey.

There’s no secret magic trick to holiness. We know from the testimony of the saints that holiness includes becoming familiar with God's voice and allowing that voice to lead your life. A good starting place, can be setting aside a little silent time each day, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, where one shares with God their heart and receives His heart back to them whether that be through reading scripture or another spiritually encouraging work. Because we are seeking to rely on and receive from an all-powerful God, maybe there’s no upper limit to our potential for spiritual growth! Maybe persevering in prayer and paying attention to what is going on in your heart is all it would take for you to become a saint!

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[1] St. Therese of Lisieux, Letter to Celine, August 2, 1893.

—Megan Healy | Director of Faith Formation