Listening As Openness and Willingness
Listening As Openness and Willingness
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 26, 2020
Benedict of Nursia wrote a guide for persons who sought to live in community out of a common desire to orient life around God. That guide is called The Rule of Benedict. And the “vows” we have explored this week are all integral to Benedictine spirituality.
The Benedictine vow of stability means that we stand still and attend to who we are in this moment. We intentionally nourish the soul, we tend to the fires of the inner life. We do not move at such a frantic pace that we cease to know ourselves. Be still.
The vow of continual conversion means that we are always journeying on. God is continually forming us, shaping us as the people God created us to be. We continue to journey, to explore, and to make new discoveries, both in the outer world and in the our own inner world. We are still moving.
The vow of obedience, as Esther de Waal describes it below, simply asks us to listen . . . to acknowledge that navigating life and God and world takes more than the knowledge we bring to the table. We listen . . . to the voice of God . . . to the wisdom of others . . . to the song of nature . . . to the wisdom that lives within our own soul.
I love how de Waal, in the readings this week, is making connections among all these vows. If we were to overemphasize any one of them, we would grow out of balance. But to hold these vows together, as she has done, leads to fullness of life.
The first words of Benedict’s Rule invite us to listen: “Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. . . .” (Prologue, The Rule of Benedict)
Read what Esther de Waal says:
But how I really find God in all this – both in the standing still and in the journeying on – must, of course, depend on my disposition and on my openness and willingness to hear and to see and to be constantly aware of God in my life. And this is where the vow of obedience comes in. Really it is no more than listening to God – and listening is, after all, the way in which the Rule opens. Listen is the very first word of the Rule: listening in its fullest sense; listening with every fiber of my being; listening in all the ways in which God is trying to reach me. This will not only be in words, through a dialogue with God through the scriptures, through daily reading, and particularly through the psalms, is very central to Benedictine life. But also listening through the people whose lives touch mine; through the things I touch and handle; through moments of grace. Do I really take this as seriously as I should? Do I not in fact so often take for granted God’s amazing generosity? By the evening do I look back on the day, see how God has been there in all my encounters, in all my daily activity, waiting with hands stretched out towards me? And then, I need to ask myself how truly did I hear and respond? For that is ultimately what obedience is about; that I listen, and I respond, and I act on what I hear.
[Esther de Waal, Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1989), 1997.]
For Reflection:
o I notice what I felt as I read the brief descriptions above about the three vows (stability, continual conversion, and obedience). Am I able to hold the three vows together?
o Listening is foundational in the spiritual life. It is the first word in the Rule of Benedict. Listening is the discipline that opens us to growth and a more constant awareness of God, ourselves, others, and the created world.
o I think of one specific way that I intend to listen today. I may commit myself to listening to someone I don’t ordinarily have time for. As I keep my distance from others, I may call someone I would not ordinarily talk to, simply to check-in on them. I may listen for God’s voice in a passage of Scripture. I may step outside for a moment or go to a park in order to listen to what the created world says to me. Today I will listen in some way.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 26, 2020
Benedict of Nursia wrote a guide for persons who sought to live in community out of a common desire to orient life around God. That guide is called The Rule of Benedict. And the “vows” we have explored this week are all integral to Benedictine spirituality.
The Benedictine vow of stability means that we stand still and attend to who we are in this moment. We intentionally nourish the soul, we tend to the fires of the inner life. We do not move at such a frantic pace that we cease to know ourselves. Be still.
The vow of continual conversion means that we are always journeying on. God is continually forming us, shaping us as the people God created us to be. We continue to journey, to explore, and to make new discoveries, both in the outer world and in the our own inner world. We are still moving.
The vow of obedience, as Esther de Waal describes it below, simply asks us to listen . . . to acknowledge that navigating life and God and world takes more than the knowledge we bring to the table. We listen . . . to the voice of God . . . to the wisdom of others . . . to the song of nature . . . to the wisdom that lives within our own soul.
I love how de Waal, in the readings this week, is making connections among all these vows. If we were to overemphasize any one of them, we would grow out of balance. But to hold these vows together, as she has done, leads to fullness of life.
The first words of Benedict’s Rule invite us to listen: “Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. . . .” (Prologue, The Rule of Benedict)
Read what Esther de Waal says:
But how I really find God in all this – both in the standing still and in the journeying on – must, of course, depend on my disposition and on my openness and willingness to hear and to see and to be constantly aware of God in my life. And this is where the vow of obedience comes in. Really it is no more than listening to God – and listening is, after all, the way in which the Rule opens. Listen is the very first word of the Rule: listening in its fullest sense; listening with every fiber of my being; listening in all the ways in which God is trying to reach me. This will not only be in words, through a dialogue with God through the scriptures, through daily reading, and particularly through the psalms, is very central to Benedictine life. But also listening through the people whose lives touch mine; through the things I touch and handle; through moments of grace. Do I really take this as seriously as I should? Do I not in fact so often take for granted God’s amazing generosity? By the evening do I look back on the day, see how God has been there in all my encounters, in all my daily activity, waiting with hands stretched out towards me? And then, I need to ask myself how truly did I hear and respond? For that is ultimately what obedience is about; that I listen, and I respond, and I act on what I hear.
[Esther de Waal, Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1989), 1997.]
For Reflection:
o I notice what I felt as I read the brief descriptions above about the three vows (stability, continual conversion, and obedience). Am I able to hold the three vows together?
o Listening is foundational in the spiritual life. It is the first word in the Rule of Benedict. Listening is the discipline that opens us to growth and a more constant awareness of God, ourselves, others, and the created world.
o I think of one specific way that I intend to listen today. I may commit myself to listening to someone I don’t ordinarily have time for. As I keep my distance from others, I may call someone I would not ordinarily talk to, simply to check-in on them. I may listen for God’s voice in a passage of Scripture. I may step outside for a moment or go to a park in order to listen to what the created world says to me. Today I will listen in some way.
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