"Beloved!"

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

(With thanks to the Henri Nouwen Society)

And this is what much of prayer is about; even when that prayer is for another, or for the world, it is to that voice calling, "Beloved," that we dare to pour out all that is on our hearts - the grief, fear, wonder, joy, doubt - in the certain knowledge that we will never, ever go unheard.