One of the important details of the sacrament of Baptism is the opening of the ear: The priest touches it and says, as Our Lord did to the deaf man, "Ephepheta; be thou opened." The words imply that once a soul is brought into the state of grace, the ears that were closed are open to the Word of God. There is a more sublime philosophy than we suspect in our saying that we learned our prayers from our mothers' lips. Prayer is arduous when it is only a monologue, but it is a joy when our self-absorption gives way to the act of humbly listening.
— Fulton J. Sheen, Lift Up Your Heart