Mary Oliver writes this about prayer:
I know a lot of fancy words.
I tear them from my heart and my tongue.
Then I pray.
The deepest prayer is listening prayer. When I say that, folks often think I mean listening for some voice to speak, and they say, “I never hear that!”
Well, I never have either.
To me, listening prayer means sitting and paying attention to what’s going on within me — my anxiety, or my impatience, or my sadness, for instance — and simply asking, “Why?” That’s the only spoken word of the prayer. Then I listen.
When there comes clarity or understanding — so that I can think: “Oh! That’s why.” — then I have allowed God the Holy Spirit to being my spirit into better alignment. I have come to know what God already knows, about what’s going on within me.
