Ladies, have you ever noticed that us men possess certain gifts not given to you ladies? We are handsome, modest and oh yes, we have the very useful gift of "selective hearing" - only hearing what we want to hear. When my dear wife was alive and slipped into her nagging mode I found this a useful tool for dealing with this stressful situation.

An elderly gentleman also with "selective hearing" was always being nagged by his family who insisted that he was going deaf, the problem was that he really was losing some of his hearing abilities. Eventually, they persuaded him to go and see his doctor, who peered down his ears for signs of excessive ear wax and then performed a basic hearing test before announcing that there were indeed signs of hearing loss. He arranged for the man to visit his local hospital for further tests and they said there was indeed some hearing loss and suggested he should be fitted with the latest digital hearing aids.

Some months later the man was visiting his doctor and remarked to the doctor how wonderful his new hearing aids were. The doctor said, "Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again after all these years." "Oh, I haven't told my family yet," the man replied, "I just sit and listen to their conversations, do you know I have changed my will three
times already!"

Hearing is very important to us all, we come to Mass to praise God and hear His word. Jesus told us, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it."