God does speak to us. Only, most of the time, at least for me, we are too busy or too chatty or too self-absorbed to pay attention and really listen. So, he talked to me this morning as I was getting out of bed — before I had a chance to begin my ever-present internal monologue. 🙂
So, how does one know that it is God speaking?
Here are some tips for how to determine this, from a talk given by Fr. John recently on prayer (Catholicism for Cradle Catholics 10/08/08):
1. Is it consistent with Scripture?
2. Is it consistent with Church teaching?
3. Is it helping me grow in charity?
Well, it was not against Scripture, but it was more of a comment, really. It didn’t go against Church teaching, and I suppose the second half of the message, which was a question, can be found in both Scripture and Church teaching — at least as a thing that is good to do. Did it/does it help me grow in charity? Oh, yeah. 🙂 Not that He nudged me to do something that I wasn’t already doing, but He was pushing me to more fully embrace this positive behavior for the good of someone else.
I love God! 🙂