Stop, Look, and Listen

God is always present. But we are often not present to Him. The key is to stop, look, and listen as often as possible. There are several spiritual disciplines for doing this. First, to stop you can practice “statio,” which is simply pausing for a moment before entering a new situation in order to pray. You can also practice fixed-hour prayer, which is called The Daily Office. You can stop during pre-determined times of the day, like every three hours, to pray. Another is by practicing the Sabbath, where you can intentionally rest for one day or for 24 hours once a week to pay attention to God, yourself, and others.

When you stop, what do you do? You look and you listen. You can practice solitude (being alone) and silence (being quiet) to be present to God and to yourself. Then you can practice Lectio Divina (divine reading of the Bible) to listen to God. Finally, you can practice the Examen to go look and listen to how God may be present in your life. I will teach you how to do these disciplines in my future posts.

If you stop, look, and listen to God regularly, your soul will always be in a posture of receiving grace from God. For God will always resist the proud, but He will always give grace to the humble. Grace is what we truly need to be and to do anything that has any eternal value. Think about these things and, if you have a desire to know God more, practice them by faith. Once you do so, you will see good fruit in your life.