Listening 101

So far no one has enrolled to take my hypothetical curiculum for the seminary classroom, but it does not discourage me or keep me from my continuing to add to the courses already mentioned in previous blogs: "Being 101, "  a course which would underscore the value of being instead of just doing; "Practicing the Practice of the Presence,"  which would create awareness to the Holy in the midst of the creation, and, "Ruminating the Word," a class to enable hearing the Voice of God in the written Word.  The new addition would be one called "Listening 101," and would take people to the classroom of prayer.    

It is not that people do not pray.  Most of us pray every day.  Some of it is formal and uses rituals of prayer and some of it is spontaneous and in response to what is happening in the minute in our life.  Many times during the course of a day's living, I have spoken out saying, "Lord, have mercy."   Praying is not an unknown spirtual disicpline to most of us.  We do it even though it may be undisciplined and irregular in occurence.    

After a life time of praying it seems that an issue greater than being disicplined in our praying is the issue of learning to hear what the Spirit might want us to hear within in our praying.  We pray, but most of the time without any expectation that God might have something to say to us in the moment of praying.  Prayer is a one sided conversation for too many folks and "Listening 101" would assist the one praying in learning to hear the Voice of God as He speaks to us while we pray.  For some it might be a strange and radical idea which is all the more reason for adding it to the core curiculum of our spiritual syllabus.