Sunday Mass readings meditation for this Sunday from the California Mission magazine

I am the webmaster for the www.msjc.org web site and the MSJC prayer group put out a magazine for 5 years called "The California Mission" and one of the regular features of the magazine was the Sunday Mass Reading meditations for each Sunday. The magazine is no more but since the Catholic Church rotates the Mass readings on Sundays every 3 years, the meditations can live forever. Here is the meditation for this Sundays readings from 1999:

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Mass Readings:
Isa 55:10-11
Psalm 65:10-14
Rom 8:18-23
Matt 13:1-23


It is often said that God desires to speak to every person. But what is it like to listen to God's word? How should we respond when we hear Him speak? The parable of the Sower
and the Seed gives us Jesus' own wisdom on these questions. The Lord describes four stages in our response to God's word: Receive, Retain, Persevere, and Produce.
The first priority in responding to God's word is to receive the word in our hearts. If we just hear God's word, but do not listen to it, ponder it and take it into our hearts, then we will inevitably "lose" the word. It will be like seed sown on a path that is immediately snatched up by birds. Jesus warns us that this is not a simple case of forgetfulness, but a manifestation of the devil' s strategy to distract our hearts from divine things. God's word often comes as a "small voice" or "message" that pricks our conscience. When this happens, it is important to "welcome" the word-even taking time to write down what we think God is saying to us-so that
the word will take root in us and begin to grow.
The second priority in responding to God's word is to retain the word in our hearts. Trials inevitably come up that test our commitment to the Lord's word. If we fail to "hold on" to God's word, we are like the rocky soil on which the seed fell and sprouted briefly, only to wither for lack of roots. Retaining God's word involves more than simply hearing and remembering it. We need to let the word sink roots in us. This can be aided in two ways: first, by asking the Lord to explain what he is saying to us; second, by being obedient to what the Lord directs us to do. For instance, if God teaches us something about the saving power of Jesus' death, we should ask questions and seek deeper insight into this revelation. Or, if God tells us to be reconciled to someone, we should obey the prompting.
The third priority in responding to God's word is to persevere. In the long haul, what most corrodes the vitality of a Christian's life is often not direct persecution but the lure of money and anxiety over worldly affairs. These problems cannot be avoided; they are a part of life. But with strong faith and God's grace, we can persevere in the word and grow toward spiritual maturity.
The final priority in responding to God's word is to produce fruit. God does not speak to us just for our own personal benefit. He speaks to us so that His word will bear fruit for others in the revelation of His merciful love and glorious majesty. Today, as we listen to the Lord speak to us, let us pray that his word in us will bear fruit for the glory of God and the upbuilding of the Church.