Speak Lord: How God prepares our hearts to hear his word

March 2025

By Fr. Robert Mulderink

Speak Lord: How God prepares our hearts to hear his word

In January, I accompanied 50+ college students from my parish, St. Luke, and Grand Valley State University to the SEEK Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. SEEK is an annual conference hosted by FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). I’ve attended the last three years as the chaplain of a university served by FOCUS missionaries. SEEK 2025 drew around 17,000 people including 600 priests and more than 125 attendees from the Diocese of Grand Rapids, including Bishop Walkowiak! The diocese even provided scholarships to 94 young people to share in the cost of the conference.

To the external observer, SEEK looks like a fine training and education conference, but for those who participate, the most important part is the invisible work God does. Being with thousands of people who are sold-out for the Gospel, who are joyfully sacrificing to follow the Lord, and who understand the challenges of trying to preach the Gospel provides a great feeling of home and safety. The whole atmosphere of SEEK is one way the Lord disposes me to receive his graces: there, it’s normal to do what looks foolish for the sake of someone’s salvation.

Every disciple of Christ needs regular reminders of who he is, what he is doing, and why he’s doing it. We forget, and when we do, discipleship and even priestly life and ministry can turn into a “grind.” When that happens, my heart closes to the power and urgency of the Gospel, and the daily work of faithfulness and love can lose its meaning.

What we need to recognize is that Jesus is the hidden organizer. He’s running the show. He uses all that we’re hearing and experiencing to bring about an interior change, a conversion, in each of us. We all hear the same words but receive different graces. For me, the most fruitful part of the conference has always been trying to recognize the invisible work being done by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord acts to create the right conditions for me to hear him speak. The content and talks are powerful, but their effectiveness depends on the disposition of my heart. The Lord uses all sorts of things: the talks, a seemingly random conversation, even difficulties, to open my heart to hear him. And then the simplest thing, something I’ve heard about God a thousand times before, suddenly becomes piercing and life-giving.

This is what it is like when discerning a vocation. We want to hear God give us an answer to our questions and can get frustrated by his apparent lack of response. All the while, God is working in a way we do not see, organizing our lives to create the conditions in which our hearts will be disposed to receive the word he speaks to us. While our attention was on our unanswered questions, God’s attention was on softening our hearts and bringing us to the hidden interior where we can perceive his presence and work. I invite you to take time to notice how he’s working in your life, how he is changing how you see, so that you can follow where he is calling you to go.

CTA:

To hear keynote talks from SEEK, go to seekreplay.com. SEEK 2026 will be held next January in Columbus, Ohio. Anyone can attend! Check out details at seek26.focus.org/registration/ and consider taking your family!

Father Robert Mulderink is director of priestly vocations for the Diocese of Grand Rapids.