Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

Lent offers us an opportunity to listen to the call of the prophets as we spend time in prayer. Jeremiah is one of my favorites.  He spoke in troubled times. He laments the conditions of the people under the power of Assyria and Babylon. He talks about the present and a hope for a better future, if the people will change their ways. The sins of the people have brought a punishment, but repentance can lead to a bright future.  The prophets so often struggle to get the people to listen.

Paul Simon wrote the words of the song “The Sound of Silence” in 1964. He offered a warning, much like a prophet, pointing to the consumerism and treatment of others: And the people bowed and prayed / To the neon god they made / And the sign flashed out its warning / In the words that it was forming / And the sign said, “The words of the prophets / Are written on the subway walls / And tenement halls / And whispered in the sounds of silence.” At a performance in 1966, Garfunkel said the song was about "the inability of people to communicate with each other...what you see around you is people who are unable to love each other."

These issues of heightened concern for consuming more and more, while at the same time being unwilling to communicate with others, are evident right now as well. Political tensions are rising and the way of life we have become used to is threatened. We need a reminder of what a bright future might be like. We need a prophetic voice to put us on the right path again. Those voices are out there. We have to listen through the noise around us to find the call to look to the future with hopeful eyes. The words of today’s prophets exist. Spend time in prayer to be able to recognize those sounds above all others. It’s hard to hear the lamentations and the list of ways we have gone wrong, but it’s necessary to put us on the right track to repentance.

God of the prophets, open our ears to those who speak your word in ways that are not always easy to accept. Give us the willingness to put our fears aside and listen with our hearts.

Blessed Angela: “Let us support each other with prayer; there let us seek strength and guidance.”