True petition does not reside in words spoken by the mouth but rather in thoughts of the heart. It is not our words, you see, that constitute the strongest voices in the presence of the most hidden ears of God, but our desires. If we ask with our mouths for eternal life but do not desire it in our hearts, our cries are silent. If, however, we desire it in our hearts, even if our mouths fall silent, we cry out in our silence. Saint Gregory the Great: Moralia on Job: Book 22:43
George Paul Alexa says
I do cry out for eternal life, but how do I know that I desire it with my heart? I think I desire eternal life with my heart. But how do I know for sure if I do?
Paul says
I’m not a monk, but I would offer that maybe we can’t even know our own hearts. Jeremiah 17:10 “I, The Lord alone, probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merits of his deeds.” God made our hearts for Him, and we “are restless until we rest in thee” (Augustine).
St. Gregory seems to imply our hearts have the ability NOT to cry out. But God didn’t create us to leave us miserable. We have to trust the Maker of our hearts, and accept that our desire for Him, our love for Him, is the good and perfect gift from above–one that He has promised to give immediately to the one who asks, who cries out. Even before we ask, He prepares us, and then, in asking, He gives us the gift of asking–if we allow Him–if we say, Let it be done. Maybe our hearts within us already have the internal impulse and force to cry out, because that is what they were made to do–we just have to let that cry out, instead of fighting it, instead of trying to distract ourselves with other things. Perhaps this sigh of the heart–“let it be done” is what we most properly speaking “do”–the rest is the power of God working in us.