Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Theme for the Week

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Mercy is the absolutely indispensable lintel over which you step into the heart of God.
- Cynthia Bourgeault

This week we will focus on the theme of listening as an act of mercy and love. My initial understanding of mercy was that it was something God, or others, bestowed on me, feeling sorry for me or in some ways pitying me, and deciding to give me another chance. Mercy was something I was lucky to get. While my understanding of mercy has matured, it wasn’t until my teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, unpacked mercy at a Wisdom School that something cracked wide open in my being.

In a teaching on the Divine Exchange, Cynthia referred to Helen Luke’s contributions to exchange in Helen’s book, Old Age. She shared that Helen understood mercy as a holy act of exchange, something of value both given and received. This, based on the root for the word “mercy” being merc, the root also forming the words commerce and merchant, words that at one point were associated with respect and dignity, although less so now. Helen goes on to trace the deeper root of the word “exchange,”—connected with the French merci, with “grateful response and kindness of heart,” and finally to compassion and forgiveness, where we are able to open ourselves to the Mercy that frees all faults, which is the ultimate exchange.”

This idea of mercy being an exchange that “frees all faults” relates beautifully to what Heidi Kim wrote yesterday, “may we remember to listen for God’s mercy and grace.” That God listens to the innermost longings and struggles we express through our prayers, both spoken and silent, and responds with renewing, hopeful, and redemptive mercy, grace, and love.

Making It Personal: What is your current understanding of mercy? Do you see how listening can be an act of mercy? Of love? In a prayer, or perhaps in something you write, what words might you use to convey your desire to join your heart with God’s heart?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening for Mercy

Listening for Mercy

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Reflection By Heidi J. Kim

Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.
- William Shakespeare, King Lear

As a lay person related to theologians, I find the task of reflecting on Scripture to be daunting. This week’s Gospel, prevalent in the end zones of football games, is even more intimidating as it is so well known. I actually thought about Googling what some biblical scholar had written and then putting my own spin on their wisdom. Then I thought about my sixth-grade students and the fact that I was holding myself to a standard of perfection that I would never demand of them. In fact, I was holding myself to a standard that even God would not demand of me.

The tyranny of perfectionism permeates our contemporary culture, and it is relentless. I see it in my students who feel pressured to perform in ways that may not align with their personal learning goals. I see it in my colleagues who heroically return to hybrid and distanced classrooms trying to build relationships and community with students even when the technology fails. I see it in myself as an educational leader confronting the twin pandemics of COVID and systemic racism; because I am so busy responding to everything, it feels like I’m accomplishing nothing.

I see it in people of faith who have responded to social, economic, epidemiological, and environmental challenges with love and compassion, who still feel anxious and defeated. I think this relentless perfectionism is one of the ways that we have embraced darkness in our time. I spend far too much time regretting what I have not yet done, and this gets in the way of my doing what I can. It’s exhausting and antithetical to what I claim to believe as a Christian. And if I can lack compassion for myself, it permits me to lack compassion for others. I wonder if the extreme polarization of our time—the mistrust and antipathy that are expressed toward others who do not worship or vote as we do—is an outgrowth of that dark and sinful focus on perfectionism.

The readings for today tell a story of God’s mercy for us, in all of our sinfulness and imperfection. They remind us that we have been saved by faith, not by our own doing, but as a gift from God. That when we do what is true, our deeds will have been done in God. In these times when so many of us are striving to do what is not perfect, but true, may we remember to listen for God’s mercy and grace for our imperfect humanity. How might we let go of “perfect” to embrace what is well and true?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Different Kinds of Fasting

Different Kinds of Fasting

Listening to Our Neighbor

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Fast from words and be silent so that you can listen.
- Pope Francis

Giving something up for Lent is a traditional practice observed by many. Fasting as a Lenten discipline also has a long tradition, which is where the idea of giving something up comes from. When a person takes on the practice of fasting, it is not to experience deprivation but rather to practice the discipline of delaying gratification, which is an essential factor in all dimensions of wellness. Fasting also helps to heighten the awareness of the nature of one’s true hunger, helping to clarify our need or hunger for spiritual, emotional, and relational wellness.

A few years ago, Pope Francis suggested the following list of things from which we can fast.

• Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

• Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

• Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

• Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

• Fast from worries and trust in God.

• Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.

• Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

• Fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy.

• Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.

• Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

• Fast from words and be silent so that you can listen.

Lent is an ideal time to be more intentional about holding fast to the habits, beliefs, and practices that ground and secure our lives.

Making It Personal: Have you given up anything for Lent this year? If so, how is that going for you? What are you learning as a result? Do you see a connection between any of these fasts with this week’s theme of listening to our neighbor?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to Our Family and Friends

Listening to Our Family and Friends

Listening to Our Neighbor

Reflection By Scott Stoner

During my two years researching a book on listening, I learned something incredibly ironic about interpersonal communication: The closer we feel toward someone, the less likely we are to listen carefully to them.
- Kate Murphy

It is ironic that sometimes the people we struggle to listen to are, in fact, the people with whom we are closest. Kate Murphy, author of the best-selling book, You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters, tells us that researchers have a name for the difficulty we have listening to those we know best. It’s called closeness-communication bias.

Closeness-communication bias means that we think we already know what someone is going to say before they even finish speaking and so we listen half-heartedly. It is a different kind of judgement as it is not based on someone being different from us, but because we think we already know what they would think and say. This type of bias can happen in families, friend groups, and the work place.

In a recent counseling session, a couple shared a powerful insight. They described that when they are each with their friends, they focus on being exceptionally good listeners, asking questions that draw their friends out, and being genuinely curious about what their friends have to say. They went on to reflect that they rarely extended that same kind of openness and attentiveness to each other, and vowed to make a change. Without using the term, they were recognizing that they had fallen into the rut of closeness-communication bias.

Sometimes it is hard to listen to the neighbor in our lives who is far away from us. And sometimes it is even harder to listen to the neighbor who is the closest of all to us.

Making It Personal: What stood out for you in this reflection? Is there a friend, family member, or colleague with whom you regularly interact that you want to listen to with a fresh curiosity and openness? How might your new type of listening change that relationship?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Instead of Othering

Listening Instead of Othering

Listening to Our Neighbor

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Compassion isn’t just about feeling the pain of others; it’s about bringing them in toward yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased. “Be compassionate as God is compassionate,” means the dismantling of barriers that exclude.
- Father Gregory J. Boyle

“Othering” may be a new word for you, but it describes a human tendency that has been around for all of time. Othering is when we choose to prejudge someone because we believe them to be completely other than us, and therefore not of equal value. We can other people based on their race, politics, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or disability—just to name a few conditions for othering.

Jesus was scandalous to many, including the religious authorities of his day, because he challenged the barriers created by othering in his culture. For example, when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well and is willing to enter into a conversation with her. The woman, shocked, asks “How is it that you, a Jew, has a drink with me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9). It was common practice then that Jews and Samaritans othered each other, and thus chose not to interact with one another.

Who among us has not prejudged someone because they are different from us? The remedy for this kind of prejudice, this kind of othering, is to commit instead to listening to our neighbor even, or especially, when this kind of listening stretches us. Jesus is our model for doing this. Time and time again we see that when Jesus befriends the “other,” what follows is some kind of profound healing and transformation. Imagine the healing that could happen in our world if we all strove to do the same.

Making It Personal: What speaks to you most in this reflection? Are you aware of ways in which you fall short of loving a neighbor in your life because of prejudice or othering? If so, what steps might you take to change this?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to Understand

Listening to Understand

Listening to Our Neighbor

Reflection By Scott Stoner

The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.
- Stephen Covey

One of the reasons I believe that deep, authentic listening is rare is that it is challenging to do. It takes time, discipline, intention, and effort to be fully present to another person when they are speaking to us. It is challenging not to be distracted. We have to truly focus our full attention on what they are sharing, working not to be drawn away by what is going on around us. We have to quiet ourselves internally, putting away our own thoughts and concerns for the moment. We have to listen with the intent to truly understand, instead of merely listening to reply. We have to avoid the temptation to steer the conversation back to our own lives and our concerns. And we have to offer the invaluable gift of our time and care.

Perhaps another reason we often avoid genuinely listening to one another, in addition to the intention, time, and effort it takes, is that there is a certain kind of vulnerability in truly listening. When we genuinely listen to another person, our perspective may be changed, and we may gain a more profound respect for the person to whom we are listening. Interestingly enough, the words conversation and conversion share the same etymological root. To listen deeply and to enter into authentic conversation with another person creates the possibility that we may be changed. We risk being converted in some way when we engage in a conversation where we are committed to practicing attentive listening.

When we listen to understand rather than simply reply, we create the opportunity for growth and change for ourselves, as well as for the person with whom we are connecting.

Making It Personal: What are your thoughts on the Covey quote that we often listen to reply rather than to understand? How does his quote speak to you personally? Can you think of a time when you listened deeply to someone and you were changed by what you heard?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Offering the Gift of Listening

Offering the Gift of Listening

Listening to Our Neighbor

Reflection By Scott Stoner

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

We all have had the experience of someone pretending to listen to us. A common example of this is when we are in a group gathering and the person we are talking with is busy looking over our shoulder to see who they want to speak to next. Or when we respond to someone who asks how we are doing with an honest answer, and they change the subject because they don’t actually want to hear how we are really doing. Neither of these experiences makes the speaker feel valued.

We have each also had the experience of someone offering us the gift of their full attention and being truly present to us. In those moments, we feel like the most important person in the world to the other person, and we likely will remember that affirming experience for a long time.

All of us know someone in our lives who could benefit from the gift of our listening to them right now. Perhaps they are going through a difficult time or are feeling alone. As we focus this week on listening to our neighbor, perhaps each of us could reach out to a neighbor near or far and offer them the gift of our full attention. The neighbor could even be someone in our own family.

When we offer the gift of listening to others, to paraphrase Maya Angelou, “they may not remember what we said or did, but they will always remember how we made them feel.”

Making It Personal: Can you think of a time when someone listened to you with their full attention? How did that make you feel? To whom might you offer the gift of being fully attentive today?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to Our Neighbor

Listening to Our Neighbor

Theme for the Week

Reflection By Scott Stoner

It could be said that Jesus’ whole life was about telling everyone to look outside themselves and listen to their neighbors and love the people around them.
- Randall Curtis

In his reflection yesterday, Randall Curtis beautifully introduced our theme for this week of “listening to our neighbor.” Along with focusing on the current theme, I’d like to note that continuing any of the contemplative practices that Robbin Brent introduced last week will enhance our ability to hear God’s call to listen to and love our neighbor. And as we connect more deeply with the Holy in our lives, a natural fruit of that connection will be to more deeply and genuinely listen to our neighbor.

Jesus taught us that one of the great commandments is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The reality is that we do tend to do just that. For example, if we are impatient and critical with ourselves, we will tend to be impatient and critical with others. And if we are kind and forgiving of ourselves, we will tend to be that way with others, as well.

As I wrote in an earlier reflection in this devotional, I believe there is a similar connection between how we listen to ourselves and how we listen to our neighbors.

We will discover just how hard it is to truly listen to our neighbors, especially when we disagree with them, or when listening to them requires us to stretch outside our comfort zones. But as we see in the Gospel passage for yesterday about Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers, Jesus sometimes has a way of challenging us to listen in ways that can make us uncomfortable.

I pray that we will grow in our ability to listen to our neighbors this week.

Making It Personal: What do you think of the idea that listening to others is an act of love? What do you think of the idea that we can’t fully love some- one until we are willing to truly listen to them? If you asked people who know you well, do you think they would affirm that you are a good listener?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Wake up and Listen

Wake up and Listen

The Third Sunday in Lent

Reflection By Randall Curtis

Never miss a good chance to shut up.
- Will Rogers

I have never been called a man of few words. And at 44 years old, it is a safe gamble that I will never have that said about me. You see, once a year I tell myself that I am sure it would make me a better person to go out in a tent and just be quiet for a while. I have seen other people more “spiritual” than me do this and it seems to work great for them. Surely this is the key.

Wind, bugs, running water, my fidgeting around trying to get comfy, the inevitable scream from some poor camper far away from me as they swat another mosquito. This is not a quiet place. Often I am amazed at just how loud everything is. I wonder what am I doing wrong.

But I listen.

I admit I have not learned from these annual trips how to be silent, quiet, and still. In fact, it typically takes another year for me to talk myself into doing it again. But what I have learned from the loud forest is that so much is going on in the world and I never listen to it at all.

These trips have been God slapping me in the face, telling me that all of this is going on around me in my everyday life. Wake up and listen.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus walks into a temple and starts throwing over tables. He is telling people to listen to what is going on around them. It could be said that his whole life was about telling everyone to look outside themselves and listen to their neighbors and love the people around them.

I have been blessed recently to be a part of an eye-opening small group on race and justice, and in these gatherings I have come to realize that I haven’t been listening for a long time. As a white heterosexual man, I was doing what I could to be a good person while people around me didn’t have the same opportunities and chances to do good in their own lives. I wasn’t noticing that they weren’t in the discussion or even at the table. Like in the forest, it was not about being quiet, but about listening.

What is going on around you today that you are not listening to?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

We Did It!

We Did It!

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.
- Frederick Buechner

I was talking with a dear friend recently, whining really, about my overwhelming to-do list, personal and professional, and some frustrating relationship challenges. After a thoughtful pause, he asked, “How are you kind to yourself?”

As I was considering the question, I realized that I don’t often take time to celebrate completions, wins, or milestones. I found myself asking, “What if, rather than seeing work extending outward toward a horizon without end, I chose instead to savor the journey, the process rather than the product, the millimeters rather than the miles?” I made a commitment to pause and celebrate after I completed something before moving on to the next item on my list. As I began this practice, I noticed a few subtle but significant shifts. I was able to better discern and appreciate the ways God’s presence was animating every area of my life, and I began to notice more ease and hopefulness in my day, less tension and worry.

When I shared this with another friend and asked her how she was kind to herself, she came up with the brilliant idea to start a “We did it!” folder. She writes her completions on a piece of paper that she keeps in the folder to help her remember and celebrate all that she has accomplished. And now I have one too. The “We” in the title is a perpetual reminder that we are never alone. We’re not alone in our struggles, and we’re not alone in our celebrations.

Making It Personal: What do you think about creating a “We Did It!” folder for the significant milestones in your life? Even if you don’t want to create a folder, can you think of any recent milestones, completions (projects, goals, dreams), or blessings that you want to celebrate?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to the Wisdom of the Body

Listening to the Wisdom of the Body

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Reflection By Robbin Brent

It is amazing how many hints and guides and intuitions for living come to the sensitive person who has ears to hear what his body is saying.
- Rollo May

Scott Stoner wrote about the wisdom of the body in week one, and last Sunday Malcolm McLaurin wrote about the powerful story of Starr Carter in The Hate U Give. I would highly recommend the movie too, where we see Starr learn to trust what she knows deep down in her body to be her deepest truth.

“The body doesn’t lie,” “The body keeps score,” “I just knew in my gut,” are just some of the well-known phrases we either say or hear related to how information and knowing are first perceived at the level of the body. And one of the best ways to listen more closely to what God is telling us through our bodies is through the breath. On average, we take 20,000 breaths every day, or 960 breaths every hour. Today we’ll work with the practice of noticing as a way to tap into God’s desire for our well-being through the wisdom of the body and our breath.

You can do this simple practice anytime, anywhere. Begin by paying attention to your breathing. Notice your inbreath and your outbreath. Don’t alter anything about your breathing, just notice it. After several breaths, when you feel ready, do a quick body scan and notice any areas of tension in the body. See if you can relax your face, your tongue, your shoulders, your toes. Notice where you are holding tension and then notice what happens to your breathing as you consciously release the areas of tension. You can also practice this when facing a challenging decision or situation. God often will reveal insight and wisdom when we take the time to listen to our bodies.

Making It Personal: How does paying attention to your body support listening to what God desires for you? Did you find a relationship between releasing tension in the body and in your breath? Remember that you can return to this practice anytime you want to access the wisdom of the body.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Silence and Listening

Silence and Listening

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Reflection By Robbin Brent

I found I had less and less to say, until finally, I became silent, and began to listen. I discovered in the silence the voice of God.
- Soren Kierkegaard

St. John of the Cross was first credited with the saying “Silence is the first language of God.” Thomas Keating went on to add, “Everything else is a poor translation. In order to understand this language, we must learn to be silent and to rest in God.” We can’t fully appreciate the importance of listening without valuing the importance of silence. It is in the silence where we discover how God is present and active in our lives, and where we grow our trust in the ways God speaks to us.

Today we will explore the practice of Intercessory Prayer as one way to listen more deeply to God. This contemplative prayer practice can help us to more clearly sense how we are all connected through God’s longings and desires: for us, for others, for the world.

I pray the following intercessory prayer questions,* calling God “Beloved of my heart,” but feel free to use whatever name for God resonates in your heart.

Beloved of my heart,

• what is your prayer, your deepest desire, for me/this person/this situation?

• what do you want my prayer to be for myself/this person/situation?

• what, if anything is getting in my way of joining more fully and freely in your prayer for me/this person/this situation?

• are there any boundaries I have created in my heart that I now need to relinquish?

• is there anything you would have me say or do on your behalf?

Making It Personal: If you engaged with this practice, which questions resonated most with you at this time in your life? Is there one you’d like to write down to return to later?

*These questions were part of a Shalem seminar on Intercessory prayer and were inspired by the contributions of Rose Mary Dougherty.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Through Discernment

Listening Through Discernment

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Reflection By Robbin Brent

To “listen” another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.
- Douglas Steere

While many are used to hearing the word discernment as it relates to vocation or big decisions, I’d like to invite us to a way of engaging with the act of discernment in every area of our lives. Not only does the practice of discernment around the little things add up to the overall quality of our lived experiences, when we are able to use discernment in the “small” areas of concern, we are better able to call on this powerful practice when facing life’s larger or harder turning points.

Today we’ll explore the practice of Examen, which is simply a way of paying attention, of listening to God. The Daily Examen is an ancient and powerful way of reflecting on the day so that we can more clearly identify how and where God has shown up in our lives, and where God may be guiding us. We can apply this process to all the places in our lives that were touched during the day: from how we treated our loved ones as well as strangers, to how we tended to our money, our well-being, to how we showed up for the people and situations that we hold most dear.

Here is a brief description of the daily Examen, adapted from ignatianspirituality.com, to help you get started. At the end of the day, sit quietly for a few minutes, seeking God’s presence. Then:

• Review the day with gratitude, highs and lows.

• Pay attention to all of your emotions.

• Choose one moment from the day that stands out and pray from it.

• Look toward tomorrow, and then give everything to God to hold while you rest.

Making It Personal: If you engaged with this practice, were you surprised by anything that came up? Any new awarenesses, insights, inspiration, remorse? Is there anything you feel ready to do based on what you learned from this practice?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Distractions & Remedies

Listening Distractions & Remedies

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We are bombarded with an ever-increasing array of messages, media, and many other distractions. Taking just one medium as an example—websites—we’ve witnessed a staggering increase from 2.5 million websites in 1998 to over 1.5 billion in 2018. Compounding this is our growing tolerance for noise and distraction, both internal and from the outside world, and the role our culture plays in creating distractions. How can we hear God while facing so many obstacles to listening? How can we create space in which to listen to God?

From the Scripture quote above, we are given three trusted remedies for our distractions: prayer, gratitude, and rejoicing. Most of us are comfortable giving thanks in prayer for our blessings, yet our prayers can also offer a safe place to name the things that are getting in the way of our awareness of God’s presence. Scripture encourages us to be grateful in all things, not necessarily to be grateful for all things. A daily practice of gratitude can help to create a safe space in which to notice both what keeps us in the flow of God’s love and desires for us, and what pushes us out of that flow.

A gratitude practice can offer us room to discover what touches our hearts and the hearts of others, what inspires a lasting joy, and what allows us to listen more deeply for the ways our prayer joins with God’s prayer in every area of our lives.

Making it Personal: Take a few minutes to write down a few things for which you are grateful. Then, take a few moments to consider the idea expressed in today’s reflection, that we can choose to find gratitude in all things, not necessarily for all things. Is there anything getting in your way of looking for authentic sources of gratitude in your day? If this was a meaningful practice, you might consider keeping a daily gratitude list for the remainder of Lent.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Listening to God Through Contemplative Practices

Theme For The Week

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Be still, and know that I am God.
- Psalm 46:10

In yesterday’s reflection, Malcom McLaurin wrote about how following our baptismal promises can be dangerous. Yet, if we are willing to overcome our fear and listen to a deeper voice calling us to make the

often-difficult choices, those choices will lead to new life. But how do we listen to God? The season of Lent offers us the perfect opportunity to engage with spiritual practices that help us to listen more deeply: to ourselves, to others, and to God. This week we shift from listening to ourselves to exploring several contemplative practices that can help us to be more faithful listeners to God.

Contemplative practices are intentional actions or activities that we do to connect more directly with the awareness of the Holy in our lives. Today we will begin by preparing. Following are a few ideas you might want to consider to help you get started.

• Create a designated space in your home for reading, reflection, practice, and prayer. You may want to keep a journal here, as well as some meaningful items that remind you of your intention.

• Bring an open mind and heart, and start small. We will be listen- ing with the “ears of our hearts,” listening from a place of openness, curiosity, kindness, and vulnerability. And even spending just a few minutes a day in silence, resting in the arms of God, will be valuable.

• Seek the support of others. You can invite others to read and reflect with you, or you could join our Lenten retreat private group on Facebook (learn more at livingcompass.org/lent).

Making It Personal: Have you had, or do you currently have, a regular spiritual practice? Which of the suggestions in this reflection have you already tried or want to try? How might you reengage, or deepen, that practice?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

I Will, With God's Help

I Will, With God's Help

The Second Sunday of Lent

Reflection By Malcolm McLaurin

Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.
- Lisa Carter, Starr’s mom, The Hate U Give

Peter, Peter, Peter ...

Let me be honest here. In some ways ... in MANY ways, I find myself in the same boat as Peter. Wanting to deny the difficult, the scary aspects of discipleship. Peter was just being honest. He didn’t fully connect the dots. Yes, he truly and deeply believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but his definition was pulled from human sources. His definition was one that was fashioned by the world in which he lived, not the one that Jesus was revealing. His thinking was based on another model for Messiah-ship, not Jesus’s model. A Messiah who suffers? A Messiah who is rejected? A Messiah who is killed? These were not a part of Peter’s idea of the Messiah. Peter’s rebuking of Jesus reflects this. Peter’s rebuking reflects his shock and his fear.

Like Peter, I am often left in disbelief and denial about where Jesus is calling me to go. And while I may not rebuke Jesus (WOW! What a bold move), I do choose not to listen. Or maybe it is that I choose to listen— not to my heart and soul—but to my desire and fears. Their messages are clear. They tell me to turn my eyes away from injustice. To ignore the pain of others. To worry about me and mine. Their messages tell me that the material is the measure of worth. Their messages run counter to my baptismal promises. To seek and serve Christ in all, to love my neighbor and myself, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of everyone. The messages from my baptism are dangerous, while the former are safe and comfortable.

I am reminded of a book I read last summer, The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. It is about a young black girl, Starr Carter, who, after witnessing a great injustice, is forced into making decisions between what is right and what is easy and comfortable. With each chapter we are witness to her struggles to make the right decision, but fear and the loss of comfort make a worthy opponent. While her decision did not ultimately shield her from danger and discomfort, it freed her to live the life she was being called into. It freed her to truly live.

Both Starr and Peter remind me that listening to and following Jesus, also known as discipleship, will often take us to places and situations that aren’t comfortable. Following Jesus often involves moving against the grain of the world around us. But following Jesus—discipleship—always leads to new life.

I wonder if there are places where fear and discomfort are keeping you from responding to God’s invitation to discipleship? During this season of Lent, how might you commit to a practice of deeper listening?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening To Ourselves Takes Courage

Listening To Ourselves Takes Courage

Listening to Ourselves

Reflection By Scott Stoner

As we seek to live well through Lent, we too will need to confront our wilderness places—wrestling again and again with the insecurities, the frustrations, the hungers that leave us feeling less than and not enough.
- Dawna Wall

When hiking a trail, it is common to find benches along the way where hikers can stop and take a rest, like the bench we see on the front cover. I invite us to use today as a bench to sit upon and to take a rest, reflecting on the challenging work of listening more fully to ourselves that we have engaged in this week.

Dawna Wall described this challenging work of genuinely listening to ourselves in her reflection last Sunday. She reminded us that listening to ourselves can bring us face to face with our insecurities and frustrations. The temptation is to turn away and not listen.

We have learned this week that if we choose to avoid the challenging work of listening to ourselves, often we will prolong any difficulty we are facing. We have also learned that the choices we make regarding how we listen to ourselves set the patterns we have for listening to God, and listening to others.

So as we rest on this metaphorical hiker’s bench, let’s be gentle with ourselves, and celebrate and appreciate the inner work we have done this week. My hope is that our inner work will bear good fruit throughout the remainder of our journey through Lent.

Making It Personal: Reflecting back over this past week, what was it like to focus on listening to yourself? As we continue our focus on the theme of listening, is there one thing that you have learned so far that you want to be sure to hold on to throughout the remainder of this season of Lent?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening With All Our Mind

Listening With All Our Mind

Listening to Ourselves

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.
- Bessel van der Kolk

The Mind quadrant of the Living Compass includes Vocation and Organization. We will focus on vocation in this reflection.

You may associate vocation with people who live a religious life as their chosen profession, such as priests and nuns. In truth, we all have a voca- tion, a calling in life. God has given each of us a unique set of gifts, as well as a unique role to fill in the world. Each of us is called to use our gifts and fulfill our roles in a way that honors and serves God.

It is also worth noting that our vocation is often separate from our paid work. Our vocation can be expressed in our relationships with friends, family, neighbors, and volunteer or service work that we may do. Our vocation can also shift over our lifetime, as we continue to encounter new opportunities to both clarify and express our gifts.

Frederick Buechner, author and theologian, wrote that “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Combining this with the quote above from Dorothy Day, we see that when we are living out our own unique vocation, we feel a deep sense of joy. As 1 Corinthians 12 also reminds us, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit,” and so, too, there are a variety of ways we can express our vocation throughout our lifetime.

Making It Personal: Today I invite you to listen to your experience of vocation in your life right now. How are you feeling about where your gifts and the needs of the world are intersecting? Are you feeling the joy Buechner describes in this area of your life? If not, is there a shift that perhaps you are being called to make?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening With All Our Strength

Listening With All Our Strength

Listening to Ourselves

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.
- Bessel van der Kolk

Continuing our week’s focus on listening to ourselves, we now turn to the Strength section of the Living Compass, focusing on Care for the Body and Stress Resilience.

Most of us are familiar with the idea of body language. For example, if someone folds their arms and moves back, it could mean they are not open to hearing what we are saying. Whereas, on the other hand, if they lean and seem interested, it often means they want to listen. In this reflection, we will focus on our own bodies and how to be open to hearing what they might be saying to us.

Our bodies always tell the truth. If we get sick repeatedly, for instance, our bodies may be trying to warn us about the amount of stress in our lives, the current choices we are making around diet, sleep, and exercise.

If we don’t regularly listen to our bodies when they are quietly whispering to us, we may eventually find them impossible to ignore when they “shout” at us to get our attention. Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of the best-selling book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, reminds us that our bodies internalize and hold on to stress and unresolved hurt. If ignored, our stresses and hurts will gradually build up until they demand to be heard.

Learning to listen to what our bodies are telling us with curiosity, instead of fear or judgment, is the first step in healing and resolving any stress or hurt we may be experiencing.

Making It Personal: What do you think of the idea that our bodies always tell the truth? Are you aware of a time when you resisted a message your body was trying to give to you? Take a few moments right now and listen compassionately to your body, being curious about what it might be quietly, or not so quietly, telling you.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening With All Our Soul

Listening With All Our Soul

Listening to Ourselves

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- Matthew 11:28-29

The Soul quadrant of the Living Compass focuses on Spirituality and Rest & Play. One way in which these two areas intersect is with the spiritual practice of sabbath time.

The practice of taking time for sabbath is so crucial that it is one of the Ten Commandments. Whether we choose to observe one full day a week as a sabbath, or shorter periods of sabbath time throughout the week, any choice to be still and rest is genuinely a counter-cultural choice in our “busy-is-better” world.

Jesus talks about finding “rest for our souls,” which raises the question of what signs we might need to watch out for that are letting us know when our souls are tired and in need of rest. Here are a few signs that I have noticed in myself and others. See if any of these match your experience.

• Feeling chronically tired even when getting enough sleep.

• Compassion fatigue from giving so much of ourselves to others.

• Holding onto worries instead of releasing them into God’s care.

• Overworking and over-functioning to the point of exhaustion.

• Not being able to let go of mistakes you or others have made.

Listening to the signs of soul fatigue is the first step in addressing the problem. Next, we need to follow the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:29 and be “gentle and humble in heart” with ourselves and with others, as we turn to God for rest and renewal.

Making It Personal: As you pause and listen to your soul, do you hear any signs of soul fatigue? If so, gently and humbly name what you are experiencing. What is one specific thing you could do to create more sabbath time in your day or week, more time to turn to God for rest and renewal?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW: