“Listen attentively to the Heart of God. This is more important than reading many things” (Inner Word).
No time is ever wasted in listening attentively to the Heart of our Father. On the other hand, we waste a lot of time if we do not take advantage of His invitation and let these moments pass us by. Often we are so immersed in our tasks and so used to them that we do not really notice the precious moments of silence in our lives. Yet it is precisely these moments that mark us the most and make us inner persons.
When St. Joan of Arc was interrogated by numerous theologians and clerics in that shameful trial that ended with her being condemned as a witch and a heretic, she told them that she could read from a book they did not know.
Surely she was referring to the Heart of Our Father, to which she listened attentively, so that, being illiterate, she surprised with her good answers those who, although very learned, could not understand divine things as she did.
Perhaps we can understand today’s sentence by resorting to a comparison used by the masters of the spiritual life to show us the difference between meditative and contemplative prayer: meditation, like vocal prayer, which depends on our will, is like rowing a boat with effort. Contemplation, in which the Spirit of the Lord takes the lead, is like a sailboat driven by the wind.
In this sense, attentive listening to the heart of God must take precedence over the various readings. In the first case, the boat of our soul is moved forward by the Holy Spirit, while in the second case it is rather our understanding that pushes it forward. Let us not miss the opportunity to listen attentively and in silence to what the Heart of God has to say to us.