This article is part of the Marian Mondays Series, a weekly reflection on the mysteries of the rosary by Jonathan Conrad, owner and founder of The Catholic Woodworker. Subscribe to have these reflections and more sent straight to your inbox every week.
I went to confession a couple of weeks ago and my penance was to meditate on a mystery of my choice, and I chose the Transfiguration. While meditating on this mystery, I reflected on God’s command to “Listen to him [Jesus]” that appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
This got me thinking about how real listening requires us to be free from distraction and agendas so we can give others our full attention. But the reality is we’re never going to be completely free of distractions, so the challenge becomes: How can we really listen to Jesus?
This question was still in the back of my mind when I went to adoration last Tuesday. I brought a book with me like I usually do, but instead of reading the book I tried to do something that I hadn’t done in forever: just be with Jesus.
I sat there and closed my eyes and almost immediately had this image of me walking through a wheat field with Jesus. In that scene, I felt like He was telling me to come rest with Him and to simply allow myself to marvel at the goodness of God. So I did. But it only lasted for about 15 seconds before I got distracted and my mind started to wander…
Once I realized I was thinking about other things, I reminded myself that I was supposed to be with Jesus and I went back to that place. I moved through this cycle of settling into His presence, losing focus, and then starting over for the next 45 minutes.
After adoration, I was frustrated that I’d found it so hard to simply be with Jesus. But then I decided to look at it another way: I could choose to be grateful for the invitation to be with Him and go back next week to try again instead.
The truth is we have to put in some effort of our own if we want to listen to Jesus. But we can also trust that it’s not going to be by our work alone that we hear Him, but by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, we can find peace in showing up, knowing that our prayer efforts are enough and that God will do the rest of the work from there.
If you’re looking for another Scripture passage to help you find God in the quiet, spend some time reading and reflecting on 1 Kings 19:9-18.
Get more of my weekly reflections sent to your inbox by clicking here to subscribe.
