The most difficult and decisive part of prayer is acquiring this ability to listen. Listening is no passive affair; a space when we happen not to be doing or speaking. Inactivity and superficial silence do not necessarily mean that we are in a position to listen. Listening is a conscious, willed action, requiring alertness and vigilance, by which our whole attention is focused and controlled. Listening is in this sense a difficult thing. And it is decisive because it is the beginning of our entry into a personal and unique relationship with God, in which we hear the call of our own special responsibilities for which God has intended us. Listening is the aspect of silence in which we received the commission of God.
Mother Mary Clare, in Encountering the Depths, pg 33.
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