Sometimes in the middle of the night I am awakened by the sound of an owl. I am predisposed to hearing this call, even in the winter when the windows and doors are closed. I lie in the dark waiting for the call to be returned, or as it is sometimes, repeated. I have heard the call and response of more than two owls echoing from among the dark trees behind our house.
Listening to the long, lonely-sounding calls of the owls from the hills prompts me to think about the nature of prayer. Sometimes there is a silence that stretches between the calls that makes me wonder if there will be a response, and when it comes, I wonder “Who” is calling and “Who” is listening. At times there is only one owl calling repeatedly for a response that never comes.
Chapter twenty of the Rule of Benedict instructs about how the nature of prayer defines our relationship with God. Sister Joan Chittister writes in her commentary, “The function of prayer is not to establish a routine; it is to establish a relationship with the God who is in relationship with us always.” This relationship can be understood as a call and response, a time for receiving, as when we listen to the psalm, then pause and reflect before responding.
“The psalms were an invitation to prayer, the silent prayer of the heart. In the older monastic practice, the psalm was not regarded as human homage rendered to God but rather as God’s message to humanity, awakening the response to prayer,” reflects Esther de Waal in her commentary on the Rule of Benedict: A Life-Giving Way.
Humility and reverence form the posture of prayer, indicating how we approach God, how we listen and how we respond. “We must be assured that it is not in many words but in purity of heart and tears of compunction that we are heard,” says the Rule. Perhaps this is about how we pray even more than what we pray. God wants us to be our true selves, not who we think we are, or who we would like to be, just ourselves. Come to prayer with an open heart and ears, and perhaps fewer words.
Like the call of the owl, the Word goes out and it is clear and seeking. We can listen to God speaking to us through psalmody and Word, with the ear of the heart, and respond with a heart cleansed of remorse and sorrow.
In the silence of the heart, between the call of God and our guileless response lies the potential for us to know as we are known, to be in restored relationship. This prayer is the call and response of Love.
By Noel Poston, Oblate OSB