Word

Aquinas notes that prayer is foremost an intellectual act since it is, at its heart, conversation with God. Conversation means speech, speech means words, words mean mind. When we pray, we speak to God, but, like any good conversation, we must also listen. When we listen to God, we hear His Word. The Word of God is Christ. And when we know things, Aquinas notes, there is a likeness between the knower and the thing known. So when we listen to the Word, and the Word becomes more familiar to us in our minds and hearts, then we become more like the Word, as we participate more in His likeness. How lucky are we Catholics! We have the mass where, to paraphrase St. Jerome, Christ's Body and Blood are poured into our ears during the reading of the Gospel! We have Sacred Scriptures, where we hold the Word of God in our hands, and readily encounter Him with open minds and hearts! We have Tradition, where we learn from Christ speaking to everyday Christians for two thousand years! In a sense, the Platonic music of the spheres  isn't so far fetched; we are surrounded by the Word of God, but, as Mark the Evangelist is wont to say, we must have ears to hear. He who has ears, let him hear!