Learning to be Quick to Listen

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church, famously taught that "he who prays is certainly saved," emphasizing that we should approach God with the familiar intimacy of a friend. We often compartmentalize our faith, yet God longs to speak as clearly in the bustling workplace as He does in the silence of the sanctuary. Heaven knows no difference between a Sunday morning and a Wednesday afternoon; the grace available at the altar is the same love that desires to be worshipped when we sit at the dinner table. As St. Alphonsus reminded us in The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, the heart should be a " continual oratory " where we ask God for everything we need—from the trivial to the profound—and offer Him constant thanks for His presence in the mundane. It is easy to become discouraged when our spiritual lives feel inconsistent, especially when we realize we have gone days without a single conscious thought of the Divine. However, St. Alphonsus offers a bea...