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 focu...