Prayer: Teach Me to Listen

Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers.
Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is,
"Accept the person I am. Listen to me."
Teach me to listen, my caring God, to those far from me --
the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.
Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself.
Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside -- in the deepest part of me.
Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice -- in busyness and in boredom,
in certainty and in doubt, in noise and in silence. Teach me, Lord, to listen. Amen.

(Adapted by John Veltri, S.J.)