“Whoever wants God to listen to him, let him first listen to God” (St. Augustine).
No matter how much God speaks to us, we will not understand Him unless we learn to recognise His voice, unless we assimilate His word and put it into practice. It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus said and did (Jn 14:26), but He can only do this if we are willing to listen and pay attention to the Lord. That is to say, the right disposition on our part is necessary.
When we listen to the Lord – and no doubt St Augustine is referring to having an open heart to our Father and being willing to follow His Word – then we enter into a different level of relationship with God. This will also affect our prayers, which will become more and more marked by the naturalness of trust in the Heavenly Father. We know that it is a joy for our Father to hear them, because He has entered into a deeper relationship of love with us and wants to fill His children with all the graces He has prepared for them.
If we, with His grace, fulfil the necessary conditions, this can happen without hindrance.
In fact, God hears people’s prayers, even if they have not yet entered into an intimate relationship of love with Him. By experiencing how the Father answers their prayer, the person who prays should feel God’s goodness and draw the right conclusions, growing in gratitude and thus centering their life even more on Him.
But the words of St. Augustine remain incontrovertible: “Whoever wants God to listen to him, let him first listen to God”.