Can our deceased loved ones still 'hear' us?

I received a letter from a man who recently lost his wife. My response is below, and I share it with you in the hopes it will help the grieving:
I am so very sorry for your loss. The loss of a spouse is a great cross to bear. We lose the person we love most and are most intimate with, and additionally we don’t have that partner to help us through it. Or at least it seems that way. We miss hearing her voice. We miss sitting with her and not talking at all. The wound of the loss is deep, dark and painful.
With regard to your questions about the Communion of Saints and whether our loved ones can still “hear” us … I don’t think we know for sure. However, I think that entering into the Beatific Vision, when we behold God face to face and are in full communion with Him, does not make us so full of God that we no longer care about anything or anyone else. Rather, when we enter into the Beatific Vision, our hearts are perfectly ordered and we love more completely and more perfectly than we can imagine. We will love like God loves! 
I think that we can rest assured that our deceased loved ones are in fact aware of our thoughts and prayers because they are with God. I feel certain that our deceased loved ones love us and pray for us. Here’s the caveat though — our deceased loved ones also love everyone the same way. People who were strangers to our deceased are loved in the measure as our deceased loved ones love us.
Perhaps that’s why we typically do not hear from the dead. They are no longer tethered to us and our families the way they were while they lived here. They are now free and love in a universal way. They love everyone equally. This is what our hearts were made for, but because of the fall those of us on this side of the grave cannot love that way very well (by the way, a celibate person is a sign to the world that in heaven we will love in just this way, but that will be another discussion).
I hope and pray that you will find some solace in this brief offering.
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
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