by Mary Kraemer, O.S.F. One of my favorite cartoons depicts a little boy kneeling down to say his bedtime prayers. He looks toward heaven as he says, "And thanks, God, for never putting me on hold." I smile at his innocence and wonder how he will react to situations later in life where he may feel not only that God has put him on hold but also that the Divine Listener has gone completely deaf. There's no doubt David was having a "DGD"(Deaf God Day) when he penned Psalm 28, which begins, "To you, O Lord, I cal; O my Rock,be not deaf to me..." On our own "DGD's" we may feel overwhelmed by a feeling that God does not hear us. It does no good to ignore or deny our feelings at a time like this. Rather, if we give ourselves permission to feel the frustration of our condition, we will be able to work through it more completely. Enriching your prayer life! Let's explore how it feels to experience God as being deaf to our prayers. In the hope of finding practical ways to communicate with God when we feel sure the Divine Listener's ears are full of wax, we will use as a model the three most common ways that hearing-impaired people communicate with the world. We will also take a personal "hearing test" and consider some possible "hearing aid." 1) Read God's lips In order to read another's lips or haveyour lips read, you must first have the other person's attention. I am reminded of the story of a four-year-old deaf girl who wanted a red bike for her birthday. Her parents suggested that she pray to God for it. Suddenly she pounded on a table. When her startled parents asked why she had done this, she replied, "First, I have to get God's attention." Sometimes you may feel as if banging on a table is the only way to get God's attention. You might also try looking at small and quiet events for evidence that God is attentive to your prayers. Perhaps you'll notice a splash of rainbow colors on a wall from a prism in the window. Or you'll pick up a photograph and think back to the time it was taken. Did God seem to be listening to your prayers at that particular time in your life? If you still come up short, perhaps it's time to zero in on another essential element of communication that hearing-impaired people use: eye contact. Am I able to look God in the eye, or does such an intimate an personal gaze frighten me away before communication can happen? God can't send many signs if I'm unwilling to look in that direction. Have I established "I contact? Am I truly and totally present to God, in whatever way God desires to communicate with me at this instant? "Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!" -Psalm 27:7- 2) Use sign language. A good signer is a person who is not afraid to use his or her whole body to express a message. For instance, have you thought about the kind of body language the angel who appeared to Mary at the Annunciation must have used to convey the magnitude of God's message? Practice letting your body express its frustration at not being heard by God. If you're feeling angry, show it. Make fists with both your hands and shake them at God if that feels natural. Stay with your anger for however long it takes you to relax. Then make gentle fists with each hand and cross them over heart. You have just made the sign for the word 'love'. Now try this message: hold your fist in the middle of your chest and extend your little finger, then point toward God. You have just signed "I love you" to God. 3) Write God a note. A hearing-impaired priest once offered me this advice: "When all else fails, try writing notes." If you feel God still can't hear you after you have tried the abvove methods, try taking a few moments at the end of the day to write about the day's events and your feelings concerning them. Write in a journal or notebllk, then slowly read aloud what you have written, listening for God in the events of the day. When I do this, I find that the hearing impairment I associate with God often belings to me instead. Often as not, I've been the one who hasn't been listening. When I replay the day's scenes, I often see that God has been talking to me in vivid sign language that I have failed to understand. In other words, I've been the deaf one! 4) Take a hearing test. If none of the above approaches proves helpful, perhaps it is time to take a hearing test. Ask yourself the following questions and listen for the answers from within. Do I have "ask-itis"? This is a serious prayer disorder caused by a bad case of the "gimmes" - where we are constantly asking for things in prayer. True, Scripture tells us to ask for whatever we need, but with our constant insistence on getting our own way. are we really open to the free-flowing movement of God's grace in our life? The real issue is this: when we ask for something in prayer, are we mature enough to accept whatever response God chooses to make, or are we interested only in the outcome we have predetermined? Is the backgound noise in my life so loud that I can't possibly hear God's sometimes very quiet answers to my prayers? If so, what can I do to turn down the volume? Take a walk? Shut off the radio and television and sit for 15 minutes in the dark? come up with your own way to cut down on the static and interference. Lifting your heart to God! In the movie Saving Grace, a fictional pope confronts a seemingly deaf God. Just as he is ready to give up trying to communicate, a little deaf girl teaches the pope something about signs - all kinds of signs, not just those used in sign language. When the pope realizes the hearing impairment is mostly his own, he embarks on a physical and spiritual journey that challenges him to grow in faith and love. Our "Deaf God Days" invite us to do the same. Let's take those moments when God seems deaf as signs that it's time for us to pay a little more attention to our end of the conversation. God has an unquenchable desire to tell us how much we are loved, and an infinite capacity to do so, if we have ears to hear! ------------------------- God always loves you. Do not forget it!! :)