26-07-24 Menyuburkan Tanah Hati: Rahasia Agar Doa Didengar Tuhan

Friday 16th week in ordinary time "Mt 13:18-23" Hear then the parable of the sower...what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. A good farmer knows that the secret of the harvest is not the seed so much as the soil. The soil has to be prepared for the seed. Very good seed won't sprout if the soil isn't ready for it. In fact, part of the seed in the parable doesn't get the chance to sprout because it didn't land on soil. We are advised to take care of our heart, to watch our diet, to exercise, and adults have to undergo cardiovascular screening periodically. But there is another heart, our 'spiritual heart', which we have to take care of as well. That heart is the soil which the seed of the Word of God is looking forward to lying on. When we go to pray with the Gospel, we need to prepare our hearts for it. If you try to pray straight after watching 'The Lord of the Rings', you risk spending your prayer thinking about Frodo and Gandalf and not talking much to God. To do the prayer fruitfully you need to prepare it well, so that when you read the Word of God, your heart has the right soil it needs to sprout. Let's prepare our hearts for God during the day. It's like tuning a musical instrument to be able to play with someone else. To 'play' with God you need to have your heart in tune. If you are out of tune (through sin) you can tune it again with a good act of contrition. Everything during the day can help or hinder tuning your heart: your work, your rest, your conversations, your acts of charity, your acts of service... even the music you listen to can help or hinder you. When those things do not help you to pray, you are like the seed in the parable, living among thorns... If they told you that you were going to speak to the Pope, would you not prepare that conversation? And to speak with God, should you not prepare your prayer during the day? Mary, Teacher of Prayer, teach me to prepare myself for that daily dialogue with God.