Listening with Your Heart
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent – March 12, 2015
Abba Poemen said, “Water is naturally soft and stone is naturally hard. But let water drip continuously on a stone and it will erode. The word of God works the same way. It is soft and our hearts are hard, but if we hear the word of God frequently, it will open our hearts to reverence.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 148]
This is one of my favorite images from the Desert tradition. I’ve carried it and returned to it for many, many years now. The saying gives me an image for the long journey that is spiritual formation. I am not instantly transformed, but am always in a process of becoming . . . becoming the person God created me to be.
It is more than a story about silence. It is a saying about the heart, about the way our hearts are shaped by regularly allowing the word of God to “drip” upon it.
The ancient practice of sacred reading (known as lectio divina) suggests a slow reading of scripture that focuses on a single word, phrase, or image, then taking that simple word or phrase into the heart for meditation and rumination. Rather than reading, memorizing, or studying large chunks of scripture, sacred reading takes a slow-roasted approach. Less is more. We slow down, not interested in analyzing the text. Instead, we listen to it with our hearts.
This is the point of Abba Poemen’s saying. Our hearts are like stone, but even stone is subject to the slow, continual drip of water upon it. Over time, even stone can be shaped by the steady fall of water. So, too, our hearts are shaped by the steady, continual dripping of the word of God upon it.
Try reading scripture differently. Instead of reading for quantity, try reading short passages (5 – 7 verses of a Gospel), then listening for a word or phrase that stirs your heart. Simply pull that word or phrase out of the text and sit with it for a few minutes. Meditate on it.
What might God say to you through that word or phrase?
Why did it stir your heart?
What is God’s invitation to you through it?
Abba Poemen said, “Water is naturally soft and stone is naturally hard. But let water drip continuously on a stone and it will erode. The word of God works the same way. It is soft and our hearts are hard, but if we hear the word of God frequently, it will open our hearts to reverence.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 148]
This is one of my favorite images from the Desert tradition. I’ve carried it and returned to it for many, many years now. The saying gives me an image for the long journey that is spiritual formation. I am not instantly transformed, but am always in a process of becoming . . . becoming the person God created me to be.
It is more than a story about silence. It is a saying about the heart, about the way our hearts are shaped by regularly allowing the word of God to “drip” upon it.
The ancient practice of sacred reading (known as lectio divina) suggests a slow reading of scripture that focuses on a single word, phrase, or image, then taking that simple word or phrase into the heart for meditation and rumination. Rather than reading, memorizing, or studying large chunks of scripture, sacred reading takes a slow-roasted approach. Less is more. We slow down, not interested in analyzing the text. Instead, we listen to it with our hearts.
This is the point of Abba Poemen’s saying. Our hearts are like stone, but even stone is subject to the slow, continual drip of water upon it. Over time, even stone can be shaped by the steady fall of water. So, too, our hearts are shaped by the steady, continual dripping of the word of God upon it.
Try reading scripture differently. Instead of reading for quantity, try reading short passages (5 – 7 verses of a Gospel), then listening for a word or phrase that stirs your heart. Simply pull that word or phrase out of the text and sit with it for a few minutes. Meditate on it.
What might God say to you through that word or phrase?
Why did it stir your heart?
What is God’s invitation to you through it?
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