Ordinary Time 
Pause
Here we are. It's February, and Christmas is not far behind. In one of my favorite songs of that season, we sing, "Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees, with a voice as big as the sea. With a voice as big as the sea.”
Have you ever thought of the sea having a voice?
Do you think of songs you cannot actually hear, but which speak to you?
Are we missing some of the music that might actually sing in our hearts, if we were open to the song?
Let us tune our ears and hearts to the Holy in this moment.
Listen
Why do you say, Jacob, and declare, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, my God ignores my predicament”?
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow tired or weary.
His understanding is beyond human reach, giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted.
Youths will become tired and weary, young men will certainly stumble; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary.
Isaiah 40:27-31
Think
Listen. Try not thinking. Just listen. Listen in all the places you don’t normally listen. Be still. Open your heart. You will hear things you’ve never heard before, because you will have become available to the sounds of silence.
One must show up. That’s the first step to being in any relationship — with your parents, your friends, a boyfriend or girlfriend. And it is also true of your relationship with God. Show up. Listen. Listen and don’t expect anything. Listen and be surprised. God, who doesn’t grow tired or weary, is there. Your strength will be renewed. That’s the promise.
Barbara Gray
Pray
Open my ears, Lord. Really open them. Open them to you, that I might hear only what you would have me hear. That I might hear into the ears of my heart and be made new. Amen.
Go
Perhaps, with God’s help, we may choose which voices are stronger in our world. Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you heard the good news of God?
Listen to the trees, the geese flying overhead, the quiet sun slipping behind the hill. So much music in the quietest places in our world.
Go. Open your heart to the music of that silence. Let in the music that many never hear. Choose to listen only for the voices that feed your soul.
And you will be new music to others; and you will hear others in new ways. It’s the good news we all are waiting to hear.
