Discerning Listening
Thursday 6th February 2020: The final day of the six day course ‘Discerning Listening’ with a great group who have engaged well and run with it. The team of Steven Baggs, Nicky Seabright and I have really enjoyed working with the group.
This is a really bare bones programme that has whittled down the concept of discerning listening drawing particularly from the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to some very simple, but not simplistic, principles.
- Listen (without being able to verbally respond)
- Discern (notice the movements of spiritual energy)
- Allow the creator to deal with the creature
- Maintain poise – like a balance
- Respond – starting with a focus on the creative and life-giving before looking at the draining and destructive
- Offer spiritual exercises without too much explanation
- ensure that sessions finish with the person you are listening to having a sense of where they go next with God in prayer.
Its so beautifully simple – and astonishingly effective.