Listening that sets the heart ablaze. 

Today’s liturgy offers us three cases of listening, which when prayed can be very instructive for us. That of Peter and John, in the Acts of the Apostles: how they listen to the cripple from birth who speaks to them without words: only with gestures and a look. And Peter responds by giving him the best thing he has: faith in Jesus of Nazareth. Does this story remind you of something you’ve experienced? Does it invite you to be more attentive in your listening, more explicit in your proclamation of Jesus?

And the Gospel tells us in detail the listening of the “stranger” to the pilgrims of Emmaus and that of the pilgrims to Emmaus, the “stranger” who “makes their hearts burn as he speaks to them on the way”. It all ends at a “Eucharistic” table where they recognize Jesus, for “his way of breaking bread”… Read the Gospel slowly and join that adventure, doing in your mind the exercise of walking, listening, and sitting at the table with Jesus… What feeling does this time of prayer leave you with?