Is the Lord’s voice that loud, or is Samuel just a light sleeper? Those were my first questions about today’s reading. I mean, Samuel wakes up from his slumber three times when he hears a voice calling to him. More impressively, he gets up each time and answers, “Here I am.”
But maybe my first two questions are the wrong ones; maybe Samuel’s heart is open to the call of the Lord, and so he is able to hear it. Perhaps the Lord is always speaking to us, in little moments each and every day. Am I paying attention? Am I open to his desires for me? When the Lord speaks am I, his servant, truly listening?
—Connor Walters is a communications coordinator at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, OH. He also coaches rowing and co-moderates the school’s Saint Benedict Joseph Labre Ministry to the Homeless.