I need a phone line to God - enough of the silent treatment!

[IwishIknew]

Just wanted to reach out to anyone out there who feels the frustration of having to connect with God in deep silence and tremendous levels of discernment testing ambiguous discussions to be good or evil or simply one’s imagination.

Of everything involving Christian discipleship: obeying the commandments to the nth degree, adding in the precepts of the church, all the repetition, turning the cheek, being kind all day long every day to a house filled with children and filled with noise because you are open to life, obeying everything including the speed limit, speaking out when faced with evil, letting the bully win, fleeing from evil and avoiding the proverbial sword, etc. etc - the worst part of being Christian is that Christ rose up into Heaven and became unreachable except through dreams and deep meditation with cloudy, whispery answers. And spiritual advice goes like this: “You should converse with God all day long.” Then when you may hear a voice, spiritual advice goes like this: “watch out, it might be your imagination, it might be the devil.”… and the funny thing is that it really might be.

The point is, with all a true Disciple sacrifices, wouldn’t be nice to have a Father who you could call to get some quick, solid advice anytime you needed it?

Note, I do believe Jesus in the Eucharist gives tremendous comfort. But as a leader, I need frank, quick solid answers and pointers on how to handle situations that have way too many choices, too little time and require way too much discernment to feel confident.

I can see why Disciples abandon the faith in droves and accept compromises. It is hard, hard, hard to be Christian when Jesus ascended into Heaven. I feel for Peter who had to make all those incredibly tough decisions on behalf of all those who relied upon him. Can you imagine what it took to break Jewish custom (The Sabbath, Circumcision, eating various meats)??? He had to rely on long prayer, dreams and I am sure long discussions with highly trained know-it-alls like Paul.

To be honest, that process stinks! When one is responsible for the welfare of many, there are so many stresses and so much noise, how can one pray deeply and feel confident in the answers one receives that will impact the lives of many?

I hate being deaf, dumb and blind - and I truly am. I can’t measure people’s true motives, I can’t figure out what will truly help them, I don’t understand nor believe in what I see in the news and what people tell me is the “truth”. I can’t determine how to balance my life daily to best serve, but at the same time maximize love of God, self and neighbor.

Please - make me feel better - what am I missing?

 

[Polluted]

Interesting choice of words to end that very well thought out post. “Make me feel better”. I’ll quote a priest I heard on Catholic Radio not too long ago. A lady called begging for the priest to answer what it “feels like” in order to have a deep relationship to God or with Christ.

He said.

“I don’t care what you FEEL like. I’ll tell you what it LOOKS like…”

Christianity is not a very trippy, verbal or special Feely type of religion or spiritual path. Although I have met Christians who swore up and down that God directly talks to them. Most are not so lucky (myself included) even if that’s what is indeed happening for those folks.

Forget asking God to verbally tell you what to do, it’s not gonna happen. And don’t confuse how you feel in terms of your spiritual progress. I know it’s not the answer you wanna hear, but keep on keeping on. Give it time and perhaps in the future one might catch a glimpse of God’s hand on all the events that have passed in your life. All God is asking for is 1 measly lifetime of confusion, pain and struggle. Even if you FEEL overwhelmed and burdened…continue striving to the best of your ability. People are all watching you to see how you respond. You said your a leader, I promise you the greatest squad leaders in Vietnam or Iraq are not on cloud 9 with God whispering in their ears, they were just as mentally taxed to the breaking point and in very unpleasant situations with everyone else. How you FEEL may very well be a logical response to whatever is going on in your life…even if you don’t know “what’s the best move”,…nobody does. However remember you can’t go wrong with attending mass on sundays, eating healthy, not being a jerk, and helping others when you can.

 

[guanophore]

Please - make me feel better - what am I missing?

A Life in the Spirit Seminar?

 

[PaulineMargaret]

We can consider, I think, Mary.
She did have the original visit of the Angel with his amazing revelation…but one could say things went 'downhill from there! No surprise that this can happen with us? And even perhaps ‘silence’ from heaven?
If the religious authorities had known she was pregnant by Old Testament rules she would have been stoned to death. Joseph knew it wasn’t his child, and was in agony until an angel in his dream revealed the truth.

The gospel from then until Jesus was 12, shows Mary, near giving birth, and Joseph having to abandon home for a nationwide census, traveling over rough roads and she and he had to survive that ordeal. They traveled slowly under the circumstances, and by the time they got there, well, Jesus is Son of God and Mary’s Mother of the Savoir, but there was no accommodation remaining, They had to go to an animal shelter and use a food trough as Jesus’ bed.
It must have been confusing…this was how God was looking after this sacred family?

It wasn’t long before the king heard of an infant king, as the wise men from the East revealed, so Joseph and Mary fled as refugees to Egypt Foreign country, foreign language, and Joseph needed to find work and shelter, no relatives or friends, as Herod was having baby boys and toddlers slaughtered. We’ve no idea what they endured, day after day.
When Herod died they dared not return home as Herod’s son was now reigning…and was he like his father?.. so they went to Nazareth and Joseph had again to build up his business.

Mary cooked, washed, cleaned, ordinary wifely, womanly, maternal things…and she pondered things in her heart, just as she pondered the next sign, which wasn’t until Jesus was 12 and wowing the biblical experts in the Temple with His wisdom. In the meantime when Joseph and Mary found Him missing, they searched for Him frantically for three days. He said, “Di you know know I should be about My Father’s business” and Mary wondered, pondering these things in her heart

…as you and I ponder, often in silence, in lives that seem ordinary, at times ineffectual, seeing things in our lives and others’ lives and in the world that tear out our hearts and we can not do a great deal about any of it.
We pray, and hope, and trust in God who alone can bring good even out of our most fervent and heroic efforts

…am I in any way close to helping you ‘feel better’ or less alone.

God bless,
Pauline

 

[Polluted]

That is hilarious!

::imagining Joseph and Mary all stressed as heck seeking shelter in a cave and setting our savior on animal feed while paranoid that they could be killed at any moment::

“This is how God was looking after the sacred family???”

Brilliant kind of puts it all in perspective. Little did they know how beautiful the Gospels came out when God told their story. I wonder how he’s gonna tell my story in The Book of David (my name) in relationship to our Lord

 

[Polluted]

Interesting choice of words to end that very well thought out post. “Make me feel better”. I’ll quote a priest I heard on Catholic Radio not too long ago. A lady called begging for the priest to answer what it “feels like” in order to have a deep relationship to God or with Christ.

He said.

“I don’t care what you FEEL like. I’ll tell you what it LOOKS like…”

Christianity is not a very trippy, verbal or special Feely type of religion or spiritual path. Although I have met Christians who swore up and down that God directly talks to them. Most are not so lucky (myself included) even if that’s what is indeed happening for those folks.

Forget asking God to verbally tell you what to do, it’s not gonna happen. And don’t confuse how you feel in terms of your spiritual progress. I know it’s not the answer you wanna hear, but keep on keeping on. Give it time and perhaps in the future one might catch a glimpse of God’s hand on all the events that have passed in your life. All God is asking for is 1 measly lifetime of confusion, pain and struggle. Even if you FEEL overwhelmed and burdened…continue striving to the best of your ability. People are all watching you to see how you respond. You said your a leader, I promise you the greatest squad leaders in Vietnam were not on cloud 9 with God whispering in their ears, they were just as mentally taxed to the breaking point and in very unpleasant situations with everyone else (getting shot at, getting weird diseases, watching their friends die). How you FEEL may very well be a logical response to whatever is going on in your life…even if you don’t know “what’s the best move”,…nobody does. However remember you can’t go wrong with attending mass on sundays, eating healthy, not being a jerk, and helping others when you can.

 

[PaulineMargaret]

That is hilarious!

::imagining Joseph and Mary all stressed as heck seeking shelter in a cave and setting our savior on animal feed while paranoid that they could be killed at any moment::

“This is how God was looking after the sacred family???”

Brilliant kind of puts it all in perspective. Little did they know how beautiful the Gospels came out when God told their story. I wonder how he’s gonna tell my story in The Book of David (my name) in relationship to our Lord

You are blessed to be named David, of Hebrew origin, traditionally understood to mean “beloved”.

 

[IwishIknew]

With the most tremendous respect, I can’t think of anyone who suffered more deeply than Mary and would not wish those trials on anyone, ever.

That said - she was perfect, understood perfection and balance and love and how to say “no” to every temptation. She had only one child who was God. Her husband was Joseph, the Just One. Her parents were saints. She was raised in the Temple in God’s Presence. In essence - Mary was goodness and surrounded by goodness until the end (albeit accompanied with horrifying suffering).

On the other hand, I wasn’t raised by saints, wasn’t educated in a Church, my kids are by no means God, and I’ll stop there without mentioning my spouse (who may be a saint, esp. having to deal with me).

Living as a Disciple is mind bogglingly difficult in every sense. And studying the lives of the saints, we know God allows them to be beat up a ton. As much as I love Padre Pio’s friendly pictures, I don’t envy his sufferings one bit.

But what really makes being a Disciple difficult above all things is the utter spiritual deafness and not knowing… that is, not being able to carry on a true two-way conversation with God when needed.

Yet there is a reason Jesus ascended and left the apostles stranded in deafness (though He was still present in the Eucharist). Sometimes I think of Jesus in the Eucharist as Jesus with tape over His mouth. He’ll reach out to pat us on the back making us feel incredibly good in some unexplainable way. But it sure would be helpful to have true human to human interactions with Him.

Why would Jesus leave us to the Spirit who guides us with vagueness requiring tremendous discernment efforts when weighty decisions are at stake?

On top of all we go through to be Disciples - that part stinks.

I know I am missing something, but I don’t know what it is… Does God want us to blindly make our decisions relying fully on Providence to mop up our mistakes?

The life of a true Disciple who strives ardently to abide by all the Laws and the Spirit of the Law accepting every form of suffering and and is responsible for the lives of many is not allowed to communicate clearly with God.

Does this not seem like madness? Why wouldn’t God provide a mobile phone for those who are sincerely making great sacrifices to follow Him?

 

[Joy2day]

U r trying to limit God to human forms of communication; a type of 2D communication. Whereas God is infinite & can communicate constantly in a multitude of ways: via another petson’s words, via a sunrise, via a job, via music. God.communicates infinitely without being limited to words. U need to open your heart & have less demands/desires that are your own. A simple acceptance & appreciation of the good things you have & your present life will let u open up to find God & His joy which exists regardless of circumstances!!
Remember Christ asleep in the boat in the storm, & the apostles all worried etc? Christ can either calm the external storm or calm your mind.
At the end of the day, only one thing matters.

 

[PaulineMargaret]

I think it might be unfair to Jesus and Mary to dehumanize them by assuming everything came easily to them.
Their problems were very real and they had to face them as human in this world.

The Church and bible teach us that Jesus was truly divine but also truly human, and He wept tears over a friend’s death as well as over the hardness of hearts. Matthew 23:37 He showed disappointment, friendship, even anger.

The bible makes Jesus’ humanity clear:

]Hebrews 4:15

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Jesus suffered all kinds of difficulties, and on the Cross He in His wounded humanity out as you are,

“My God, why have You abandoned me”.
For Him at that time the Father was silent,

However, humbly He died saying, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last." Luke 23:46

God bless,

There is not going to be the phone-line, not in the sense you mean. Like Mary, like Joseph, we just have to continue to trust and continue to try the best we can manage, with God’s hidden graces.

May God help you to grow to deeper faith now that you have reached this difficult part of your human and spiritual journey.
Pauline

 

[Blessedwithfive]

Just wanted to reach out to anyone out there who feels the frustration of having to connect with God in deep silence and tremendous levels of discernment testing ambiguous discussions to be good or evil or simply one’s imagination.

Of everything involving Christian discipleship: obeying the commandments to the nth degree, adding in the precepts of the church, all the repetition, turning the cheek, being kind all day long every day to a house filled with children and filled with noise because you are open to life, obeying everything including the speed limit, speaking out when faced with evil, letting the bully win, fleeing from evil and avoiding the proverbial sword, etc. etc - the worst part of being Christian is that Christ rose up into Heaven and became unreachable except through dreams and deep meditation with cloudy, whispery answers. And spiritual advice goes like this: “You should converse with God all day long.” Then when you may hear a voice, spiritual advice goes like this: “watch out, it might be your imagination, it might be the devil.”… and the funny thing is that it really might be. I feel this all the time but I’m too afraid to actually say it

The point is, with all a true Disciple sacrifices, wouldn’t be nice to have a Father who you could call to get some quick, solid advice anytime you needed it?

Note, I do believe Jesus in the Eucharist gives tremendous comfort. But as a leader, I need frank, quick solid answers and pointers on how to handle situations that have way too many choices, too little time and require way too much discernment to feel confident.

I can see why Disciples abandon the faith in droves and accept compromises. It is hard, hard, hard to be Christian when Jesus ascended into Heaven. I feel for Peter who had to make all those incredibly tough decisions on behalf of all those who relied upon him. Can you imagine what it took to break Jewish custom (The Sabbath, Circumcision, eating various meats)??? He had to rely on long prayer, dreams and I am sure long discussions with highly trained know-it-alls like

To be honest, that process stinks! When one is responsible for the welfare of many, there are so many stresses and so much noise, how can one pray deeply and feel confident in the answers one receives that will impact the lives of many?

I hate being deaf, dumb and blind - and I truly am. I can’t measure people’s true motives, I can’t figure out what will truly help them, I don’t understand nor believe in what I see in the news and what people tell me is the “truth”. I can’t determine how to balance my life daily to best serve, but at the same time maximize love of God, self and neighbor.

Please - make me feel better - what am I missing?

 

[GLam8833]

I KNOW what gets in the way of God
speaking to us(thru visions, others, and
thru His Word)… Our humanity!!
We see the storm and forget His rule
over the situ., we see ourselves as in-
adequate and forget it is God who makes
us EQUAL to the task at hand, we see
OTHERS who seem to be oblivious of
God’s work here and forget that Jesus is
Lord of the living(and the dead)!!
We need our spiritual sight adjusted so
that we can see that God’s hand is not
so short that He cannot ACT, His ears
are not so deaf that He cannot hear our
cries for direction!!
Thank God for His Spirit that prompted
you to start this thread, my friend in
Christ!!

 

[guanophore]

But what really makes being a Disciple difficult above all things is the utter spiritual deafness and not knowing… that is, not being able to carry on a true two-way conversation with God when needed.

You seem to be suffering from a cognitive distortion about your state of spiritual perception. It is quite clear from your posts that you are anything but spiritually deaf.

Yet there is a reason Jesus ascended and left the apostles stranded in deafness (though He was still present in the Eucharist). Sometimes I think of Jesus in the Eucharist as Jesus with tape over His mouth. He’ll reach out to pat us on the back making us feel incredibly good in some unexplainable way. But it sure would be helpful to have true human to human interactions with Him.

Jesus did not leave the apostles stranded in deafness. He sent the Holy Spirit. It seems like you might benefit from a powerful pentecostal type encounter.

Why would Jesus leave us to the Spirit who guides us with vagueness requiring tremendous discernment efforts when weighty decisions are at stake?

You seem to be putting judgments on the Almighty about His method of communication with us because you are not getting what you want. I think it is clear from scripture that this is not the experience that the early Church had with the Holy Spirit.

On top of all we go through to be Disciples - that part stinks.

Had you ever considered an attitude of gratitude?

I know I am missing something, but I don’t know what it is… Does God want us to blindly make our decisions relying fully on Providence to mop up our mistakes?

It sounds like you are missing a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. It appears to have left you with a negative attitude.

The life of a true Disciple who strives ardently to abide by all the Laws and the Spirit of the Law accepting every form of suffering and and is responsible for the lives of many is not allowed to communicate clearly with God.

One thing we know about spiritual direction is that God waits for us to listen to what has already been said to us before saying more. If we are not listening to what He has already said, why would more be revealed? No, to those who have, more is given. He speaks to us through scripture and through Liturgy. If you are not benefitting from Lectio Divina then something is definitely missing.

Does this not seem like madness? Why wouldn’t God provide a mobile phone for those who are sincerely making great sacrifices to follow Him?

Not madness, just childish. Our human frailties lead us to want God to relate to us on our terms, rather than His, and to pout when he does not.

 

[lax16]

With the most tremendous respect, I can’t think of anyone who suffered more deeply than Mary and would not wish those trials on anyone, ever.

That said - she was perfect, understood perfection and balance and love and how to say “no” to every temptation. She had only one child who was God. Her husband was Joseph, the Just One. Her parents were saints. She was raised in the Temple in God’s Presence. In essence - Mary was goodness and surrounded by goodness until the end (albeit accompanied with horrifying suffering).

On the other hand, I wasn’t raised by saints, wasn’t educated in a Church, my kids are by no means God, and I’ll stop there without mentioning my spouse (who may be a saint, esp. having to deal with me).

Living as a Disciple is mind bogglingly difficult in every sense. And studying the lives of the saints, we know God allows them to be beat up a ton. As much as I love Padre Pio’s friendly pictures, I don’t envy his sufferings one bit.

But what really makes being a Disciple difficult above all things is the utter spiritual deafness and not knowing… that is, not being able to carry on a true two-way conversation with God when needed.

Yet there is a reason Jesus ascended and left the apostles stranded in deafness (though He was still present in the Eucharist). Sometimes I think of Jesus in the Eucharist as Jesus with tape over His mouth. He’ll reach out to pat us on the back making us feel incredibly good in some unexplainable way. But it sure would be helpful to have true human to human interactions with Him.

Why would Jesus leave us to the Spirit who guides us with vagueness requiring tremendous discernment efforts when weighty decisions are at stake?

On top of all we go through to be Disciples - that part stinks.

I know I am missing something, but I don’t know what it is… Does God want us to blindly make our decisions relying fully on Providence to mop up our mistakes?

The life of a true Disciple who strives ardently to abide by all the Laws and the Spirit of the Law accepting every form of suffering and and is responsible for the lives of many is not allowed to communicate clearly with God.

Does this not seem like madness? Why wouldn’t God provide a mobile phone for those who are sincerely making great sacrifices to follow Him?

If there is one point I would like to make, it is this.

There is no one right way to make a decision (unless choosing to sin or not to sin). When we were young and our children were too I thought, for example, that there was the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood and God would help me find it.

I now realize that there is no one right way for things to turn out. We make the best decisions we can with information that we have obtained through prayer and hard work and go from there.

I have gone through the twists and turns of life, learning, making mistakes, praying, making a good decision…and I feel God is with me every step of the way. He lets us find our way as long as we are praying to do His will. He doesn’t tell us at the fork in the road to go left or right. He may prompt us in one direction or another, along with careful thought and preparation, but it is up to us to continue to do His will no matter where we end up.

I think this is part of the Protestant Prosperity Gospel idea where God wants us to be rich and happy and everything will be spelled out for us if we pray hard enough for it. I lived around people like that when we were a young family and it had a big impact on me. They were always getting answers to prayer right off the bat and moving forward with this or that because God told them to.

I don’t think that is the way it works. Find joy in the little things. Realize raising good children will be the biggest and hardest thing you will ever do. Every thing else pales in comparison really.

 

[10Cathy]

I feel quite sure that everyone of us have felt like this from time to time. I think we need to try harder during those times to see, hear and feel Gods presence in our everyday lives to keep us connected to Him. If you believe that Christ is truly present in everyone, hug your children and think to yourself that your getting hugged back from God who is there with you each day. Nothing here is perfect and we all make mistakes that he already knows about. Try making frequent visits to the blessed sacrament. I have found so much peace when sitting face to face with our Lord. He listens as well as comforts us along our journey. Praying for your ears to be opened to God as well as your heart.

 

[Mintaka]

We can always talk to God. We can also learn to listen to God through the Scriptures, through sensible people who care for us, and in many other ways.

But most of the time, God communicates with us on a nonverbal level.

Even when it comes to great saints with great spiritual experiences, St. John of the Cross tells us that the “spiritual experience” of the seer is usually not the point. What really affects the person is what God is doing and which they cannot notice or feel.

Finally, the experience of God falling silent with no feeling of His Presence is something that many great saints go through. It means a big advance for them spiritually as God forces them to “exercise their faith” like they’re training as bodybuilders, but it is painful and unpleasant.

In extreme cases like St. Therese of Lisieux and Bl. Mother Teresa, this “silence” or “dark night” can actually last until their deathbeds. But St. Therese only had this happen for about a year, whereas Mother Theresa went from having great visions to having God fall silent for about forty years. She was busting her butt for God while thirsting for Him, without “feeling” any consolations for her soul other than knowing intellectually that she was doing what Jesus had told her to do.

And yet, looking from the outside at Mother Theresa’s ministry, there’s no doubt that she was showered with graces. She just couldn’t “feel” those graces. Not fun for her because she felt abandoned despite everything, but she certainly wasn’t abandoned and her head knew it.

As for me, my life the last few years has been pretty hard, and I’ve spent a lot of time feelling sad or angry. But it hasn’t escaped my notice that God has been very faithful to me when I needed it most, both with my physical and spiritual needs. The way they have been delivered has been a bit suspenseful and stressful, but I really can’t complain about the facts! (Although I’m very glad to say that God didn’t also throw me into a “dark night” situation, because He knew my strength or lack thereof.)

So sometimes we just have to trust, and keep pumping away at exercising our faith.

 

[PaulineMargaret]

The fact is though, that God has given us the means to understand what He wants.
He’s given us intelligence, the power to reason, and He’s given us the bible with the basic guide to love God above all and others as ourselves. Our own God-given feelings and emotions give us insight into how to help others, (love others as you love yourself, Jesus said). Our God-given gift of intelligence and practical commonsense should guide us to apply the command to love others in a wise and practical way inasmuch as is possible. Our good sense, and experience show where the limitations are.

God has given us the abilities we need to apply His gospel message, which Jesus sums up as love of God and of other human beings. In Matthew 25 (Last Judgement) Jesus said that love of others in action is also loving Him.

Our own gifts of nature, natural abilities etc are also God’s gifts to guide us in how to live and serve. I don’t honestly think that God wants us to sit agonizing about how to live our lives. He has spoken to us in the gospels and catechism, and within who we are as intelligent gifted beings, and we are to get on with the task, in His presence, but with His word already spoken within us.

 

[Nita]

Just wanted to reach out to anyone out there who feels the frustration of having to connect with God in deep silence and tremendous levels of discernment testing ambiguous discussions to be good or evil or simply one’s imagination.

Of everything involving Christian discipleship: obeying the commandments to the nth degree, adding in the precepts of the church, all the repetition, turning the cheek, being kind all day long every day to a house filled with children and filled with noise because you are open to life, obeying everything including the speed limit, speaking out when faced with evil, letting the bully win, fleeing from evil and avoiding the proverbial sword, etc. etc - the worst part of being Christian is that Christ rose up into Heaven and became unreachable except through dreams and deep meditation with cloudy, whispery answers. And spiritual advice goes like this: “You should converse with God all day long.” Then when you may hear a voice, spiritual advice goes like this: “watch out, it might be your imagination, it might be the devil.”… and the funny thing is that it really might be.

The point is, with all a true Disciple sacrifices, wouldn’t be nice to have a Father who you could call to get some quick, solid advice anytime you needed it?
…
To be honest, that process stinks! When one is responsible for the welfare of many, there are so many stresses and so much noise, how can one pray deeply and feel confident in the answers one receives that will impact the lives of many?

Please - make me feel better - what am I missing?

You’re not missing anything; you just think you are. And that’s probably increasing your agitation.

Your “daily duty” now is your husband and your house full of children and that’s going to take up almost all your time. Upon waking make a quick morning offering prayer - “Jesus, I offer you everything I do today.” Then as you do your daily duties, there’s constant contact between you and Jesus as He receives from you each activity as you do it.
You’re just tickling His heart because you’re doing exactly what He wants you to be doing.

I hate being deaf, dumb and blind - and I truly am. I can’t measure people’s true motives, I can’t figure out what will truly help them,

Don’t try to do the impossible - “measure people’s true motives”. Only God can do that. If there’s a situation where help is needed, do what seems the most charitable (as long as it doesn’t go contrary to God’s revealed will), and leave the effect of your help in God’s hands. “Okay God, I did what I could. I leave the rest - the hard part - to You.”

I don’t understand nor believe in what I see in the news

Very wise.

I can’t determine how to balance my life daily to best serve, but at the same time maximize love of God, self and neighbor.

You’re maximizing your love of God when you do His will for your state in life - which is wife and mother. And He is with you whenever you’re doing His will – not just when you take time alone to pray with Him.
John 14:21-23 He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; … "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
The days will come (all too quickly) when your house will be empty of children. Then you will be free to spend the long periods of time in quiet contemplation.

 

[Arizona_Fat_Gir]

Pay attention.

It is important to pay attention because many people don’t.

God has “Spoken” to me a few times, although if I didn’t pay attention I would not have realized it.1

1. The surprise of a meteor flying through the air, flaming until it reached earth.
2. A love song played on the radio, the song being about a woman with my name.
3. Finding something by my car that had meaning.
4. Winning flowers after my dog died.

If not paying attention none of these things would mean anything to me.

 

[IwishIknew]

Truly - thank you all for your insights and perspectives. I’ll attempt to sum up my takeaways. God tends to communicate to His Disciples personally through vagueness and broadly through frank teachings - this is true.

How does God communicate personally in vagueness? Largely through Providence and Inspiration - through hints and highlighting momentary events, drawing ones attention to some message throughout each day.

Does God communicate frankly? Yes, through His Teachings, God can speak extremely straight-forwardly, articulately, intelligently and frankly. He was frank through all of his Prophets who wrote His Word in Scripture and continues to be frank through the Teachings of the Church and His Saintly Prophets to this very day.

God also communicates by comforting. As a disciple, I often feel “visited” by an unseen loving Spirit and especially when near the Presence of the Eucharist. And this is what He Promised he would do for those who strive to live in His Discipline.

But I must say, it sure could be handy just to have 1:1 time with him in personal, frank communication similar to what we have on earth say with a loving parent.

So why does God not offer that 1:1 form of communication to all his Disciples? Reading the replies above, I am still not sure why He has chosen not to for certainly He can.

Maybe it is part of the curse of Adam and Eve that we have inherited. The Devil, too, does not seem to be allowed to communicate evil directly except with his through the possessed.

Maybe there was some type of communication law put up that limits 1:1 communication with the disciples of good and evil between the natural world and the preternatural realms.

Maybe this post-paradise earth is primarily about the competition for proven souls between God and the Devil as so aptly described in Job and similarly described by Pope Leo XIII. That though there may be special souls picked by both sides to have that communication line, most need to be influenced by personal vagueness (aka “advertising” - Providence vs. Witchcraft) and by frank teachings (Scripture vs. Heresy) only.

Either way , I must accept what is for now. This life is whizzing by.

A final thought:

One thing I might be able to do more of is to get up earlier in the silence of the morning. That may help at least give me more time to spend communicating with God vaguely and in His comforting Presence before the drudgery of the sacrificial cross is lofted up on the shoulders again for an eternal life to come. Onward… Though we suffer, at least it is guiltless suffering with a Comforter who visits often.