"In my experience, most of the time, God doesn't command.  Rather, God sings, and I sing back.  The singing, I mean, can be as jubilant as the red of God-made tomatoes, as the soaring of a kite or the splashing of children in a pool.  The singing is my heart's joyous response.  But God's singing can also be as heavy as the fragrance of lilies in a funeral home, heavy as the news of a friend's grief.  God's singing can be as light as harpsichord music or a spring outing, as sad as the howling of a night train or the evening news.  It can be cheerful, enchanting, challenging, amusing.  In everything we experience we can hear God singing, if we listen attentively.

Our heart is a highly sensitive receiver; it can listen through all our senses.  Whatever we hear, but also whatever we see, taste, touch, or smell, vibrates deep down with God's song.  To resonate with this song in gratefulness is what I call singing back.  This attitude of prayer has given great joy to all my senses and to my heart."

-- Brother David Steindl-Rast, The Way of Silence