Here is a summary of some of the more important insights these wise Friars shared about prophets and their role in God's plan of salvation.
To speak a prophetic word, Father Ignatius instructs us, "is not so much about foretelling something in the future. Prophecy is seeing the unfolding of history as God sees it."
A prophet gets God's people to read the sign of the times and to be aware of their lives and the events of their days in light of God's wisdom and God's plan. A prophet is able to interpret what is happening from God's perspective.
To speak a prophetic word is to speak into a situation, a living Word that manifests what God is up to and encourages the hearers to come into accord with and further God's plan.
A prophet also stirs up in people's hearts a love and desire for God and to conform their life to God's will, which will bring much life and nourishment.
To be that type of prophet, we need to be on the mountaintop. We can't be in the marketplaces, in the noise. We have to go into the marketplaces, but it's not the way a prophet begins his mission. Prophets begin their mission on top of the mountain which is a symbol of that intimacy, that place of carving out, that alone time with the Lord, of learning to waste time in prayer and to linger in His Presence - learning to wait on the Lord and to develop that interior ear to hear the voice of Jesus.
We need to hear the voice of Jesus. We need a lot of silence to do that and that's why Eucharistic prayer and silence in a Eucharistic Chapel is one of the most nourishing places where we can develop our prophetic task as God's people where we could learn to listen to Him in silence so that we could speak a word into our heart so we can bring that word into life [by sharing it with others].
My Dominican brothers have given us much to ponder. For this we should be most grateful!
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