The following is the first chapter from “Turn Everything to Love, a rule of life for lay members of the Vincentian Family” by Father Bob Maloney, CM.

As a disciple, the first service that you owe God is to listen. In Jesus’ time, all faithful Jews memorized the stirring words of Deuteronomy (6:4- 7): “Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.”

Love of God begins with listening to God’s word and believing in God’s love for us: “In this love: not that we have loved God but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10). So also so also will your love for the neighbor begin with listening.

Learn, then, to be a good listener. Allow yourself to be informed, taught, and changed by others as they “preach the gospel” through what they do and say – by members of your family, by those you work with, and especially by the poor. You must first hear the good news before you can respond to it and live it.

As you listen, the word of God will enter your life in strikingly diverse ways. It will change you. Sometimes it will come as food (Ps 19:11) to strengthen you and build you up. Sometimes it will be refreshing water (Is 55:10) to quench your thirst on the journey. At other times God’s word will jolt you like a hammer that shatters a rock (Jer 23:29), breaking in on your too-settled ways or your hardness of heart. It may also strike you like a two-edged sword (Heb 4:12) to pierce your resistance.

Read a portion of the scriptures meditatively each day. Saint Vincent tells us that the word of God never fails. It is deeply personal. It is addressed not only to the whole community of believers, but to you as an individual. Listen to it, meditate on it, digest it, and act on it. You will then be like “a house built upon rock.” In practice, as a means of reflecting on the scriptures daily, some meditate on the reading the church chooses for the mass that day. Other adopt a systematic way of reading the entire Bible each year.

In the scriptures God often complains that, though he speaks, his people “do not listen.” The true prophets were pre-eminent listeners; they heard what God had to say and then spoke in God’s name. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” said the boy Samuel (1 Sam 3:10) as he began his prophetic career.

We believe that Jesus is the Word of God, the fulfillment of the scriptures. In him the new and everlasting covenant between God and God’s people has been definitively forged. Jesus’ person and his words reveal God to us.

Mary is the preeminent disciple. She listens to God’s word and puts it into practice. When the angel Gabriel speaks to her, she responds wholeheartedly: “Be it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

Joseph reacts similarly. Four angelic messengers speak to him. As soon as he hears what they ask, he gets up immediately and carries out God’s command (Mt 2: 14,21).

Those who do likewise will be happy. The gospels assure us that real happiness does not lie being close to Jesus physically, nor in a blood relationship with him, but in listening to the word of God and acting on it.

While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, ”Happy is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, happy are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Lk 11:27-28)

Listening and humility are closely allied. Those who recognize with humble gratitude that life, truth, wisdom, and love are gifts of God have already made listening their basic attitude.

Saint Vincent calls humility the foundation of evangelical perfection and the core of the spiritual life. The humble see everything as a gift. They believe that God is always seeking to enter their lives to speak with them. So they are alert attentive and eager to hear God’s Word. The humble know that the truth which sets them free comes from without: through the scriptures, through the church, through the members of their family, through the cries of the poor.

Listen, then, to your family. Listen to those at work. Listen to the Word of God each day, choosing a small portion of the scriptures as food to nourish your prayer.

Listening is especially important when you exercise authority, as do parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, or bosses. When you hold authority, be sure to seek wise counsel often. Take advice. There is no room for arrogance in the following of Christ.

The opening words of the Rule of Saint Benedict are fundamental for all who wish to learn from the Lord: “Listen carefully to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

When you pray, relax and breathe deeply. Begin simply and peacefully. Let sounds, thoughts, and anxieties subside. Be quiet. Seek to hear the word of God.

Take a few minutes each day to sit and listen to your spouse, child, friend, a co-worker, or a poor person. Be attentive as they narrate an event of their day, a problem, a concern, or a joy. Listen without interjecting comments, advice, or judgment. Focus entirely on the other person.