Listening is an art; it is also the greatest act of authentic love. Becoming listeners in God requires training and the capacity to be attentive. This teaching gives us a deeper understanding of the section on listening found at the beginning of the book Silence, The Embrace of Love Between a Soul and God.
Listening is an art; it is the greatest act of authentic love. To become listeners in God requires the training found in the ten chapters of the silence manual. The more we grow in union with God, the greater our capacity to listen, which is connected to our capacity to love through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ.
Listening requires the capacity to be attentive:
I. Attentive to our faculties
By being attentive to how you use your hands or fail to use your hands, how you gaze at others, and the words that flow from your lips, you will come to know the sin that remains in your hearts. My Mother is forming each of you to be My living chalices. 1/2/12
I desire to remain with you as one with you in this embrace of love. For your part, protect this union through the purity of your lips. Remain and live in the embrace of the silence of the Holy Spirit. My little one, love Me and be attentive to Me. 7/17/12
Mortify your distractions with material things so that your soul can remain continuously attentive to Me. 8/6/22
II. Attentiveness to God means living attentively in the deepest recess of our heart
Growing in obedience is growing in a deep attentiveness to the movements and stirrings of the Holy Spirit in your soul. 12/14/11
Be attentive to My voice and presence that will lead you in this time of great darkness. 2/29/12
The time is short. My little one, I am living My agony of love for My Bride, the Church. I am alone; few remain with Me awake, attentive, concerned for the Heart of their God who cries for them. 2/20/13
As you choose to no longer react, nor even act, from your feelings and emotions, your interior gaze is focused on Me, on seeking only God's Will. It requires a profound interior attentiveness to the deepest stirrings within your being. 12/28/21
My little one, trust in God's goodness and mercy, for His ways are perfect. The time draws near, my little one; please remain attentive daily to Me, for we are making all things new according to God's plan. Be still, be silent, be attentive to the voice of your God, who is guiding and forming you. 6/29/21
III. Attentive to what is going on in the world & Church lived through a profound interior attentiveness
Be attentive to the signs of the times. 11/9/21
You must remain attentive to Me amid great tribulations and confusion. I will remain guiding my mustard seed, but guard your hearts against fear and anxiety…8/6/22
On this night of Holy Thursday before midnight, I wish to thank you, My little mustard seed, for keeping watch with Me. The world sleeps while Satan roams, unleashed by the sins of humanity. Yet, My little remnant keeps vigil with Mary, and God is pleased, for He will work His wonders through the few who remain attentive to their God and Savior. 4/6/23
10/4/23 — Feast of St. Francis and beginning sessions of the Synod on Synodality in Rome
Remain in silence and the prayer of sorrows as I have taught you, attentive to Me during this hour of My passion.
True listeners “are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.”
Henri Nouwen, in his book Bread for the Journey, writes about difficulties encountered in listening:
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves.
Receive
I asked Jesus how to live as His companion of love. It is easy when I am in prayer, and He allows me to feel His presence and see His gaze, but during the day, there are so many distractions...
—Be attentive to each person you encounter in your life. I live in them. I suffer for them and with them. This is My Body (Cf. Matt 25:31–41). My little one, have the docility of heart to receive the brokenness of all people into your heart as ONE with Me. This is participation in the love of the Trinity: to receive the wounds of your brothers and sisters and to give the sacrifice of your life as ONE with Me for their salvation and sanctification. This is Love. 2/18/13
Mark 9:37 Whoever receives one child just as this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”
This attentiveness that Christ asks of us requires our capacity to listen to the heart of the person speaking to us. Their words and body language reveal the condition of their hearts. This type of listening must be void of judgments, criticisms, control, and manipulation. It means that as we listen, we receive the other as they are. We receive the beauty and good in the other along with their wounds and brokenness, and we choose to suffer with Christ for them. We receive the people in our lives as they are. This requires, as Fr Henri Nouwen writes, great interior growth, healing, and spiritual maturity. (Reread the paragraph, p. 12)
Welcome (Bless)
This way of listening in which we receive the other for the love of God and souls blesses them, and this blessing makes them feel welcomed.
1 Peter 3:8-9 - Finally, all of you have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.
Accept
To accept does not mean we necessarily agree. It means we accept others as God accepts us in our misery, weakness, brokenness, woundedness, and disorders and blesses us through the sacrifice of His life. But God proves his love for us in that, while we still were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Therefore, listening through receiving brings forth God’s blessing, which causes the person to feel welcomed and accepted. This creates trust, unity, and possibly an openness later to receive correction. Therefore, the 3rd element of silence, responding, is our capacity to bless and forgive.
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