Mother Teresa on Listening

There is a famous story about Mother Teresa being asked about prayer. After decades of serving the poor in Calcutta, she had a reputation for spending long hours in prayer, and people frequently asked her for advice. The story goes that a reporter asked her, “When you pray, what do you say to God?”

Mother Teresa answered without hesitation, “I don’t say much. I mostly listen.”

The answer surprised the reporter, so he asked another question: “Well then, what does God say to you?” She smiled and replied, “He doesn’t say much. He mostly listens.”

For a moment, there was silence. The reporter appeared unsure how to respond. Then Mother Teresa gently broke the silence with a smile. “And if you don’t understand that,” she said, “I can’t explain it to you.”

This story has been passed around over the years, and no one really knows where it came from. But Mother Teresa would often talk about prayer in terms of listening. She wrote, “The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice.””