Explorations: A Brief Summary of Articles

Volume 15, No. 1	Winter 2005

Letter from the Executive Director – Ray Herman	“Throughout its history, Listening Hearts Ministries has been very fortunate to have very active and diversely talented board members” who “truly give of their time, talent, and treasury to the ministry.” The articles in this issue of Explorations are written by trustees.

A Living Word of the Spirit – The Rev. David Malone	Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict at the Weston Priory. A song by Brother Gregory quotes the opening words of Benedict’s Rule: “Let us listen to the Lord answering and showing us the way to the tabernacle [of] His kingdom.” Benedict’s Rule is intended as guide for all Christian people, not only professed sisters, brothers and priests. “To listen to the Lord was not an act of spiritual discovery reserved only for those in the profession of the religious life.”

Rich and Deeply Satisfying – Frances Sullinger	The spiritual impact of a Listening Hearts discussion series in Bogota, Columbia, where the author, a State Department employee, was assigned to the United States Embassy; on two groups in Costa Rica, after the her transfer there; and on discussions at Holy Comforter in Northern Virginia upon her retirement. The article includes participant feedback responses to the question, “Do you feel that you have developed a stronger awareness of listening to God in yourself?”

“Lead a Book Discussion . . . Who me?” “Yes, you!” – Alice Dorrance	A group studying the Rule of St. Benedict helps the author prepare to lead a Listening Hearts book discussion. Included in the article are group member reflections on the spiritual impact of the book study. The group agrees to continue to meet “to practice with a heart that is still, that listens and discerns. . . “

Volume 15, No. 2	Fall 2005

The Power that Goes Beyond Our Wishes – Suzanne Farnham	Often, we do not receive explicit answers to our questions. Instead, we are challenged to trust. Yet, through deep prayerful listening, God “imparts to us a gift of even greater worth: quieter, stronger relationships with both God and other people.”

On Listening – Mary Hope Rhodes	The author reflects on the need to let go of convictions and opinions, and also on how seeking God’s counsel makes her own journey more comfortable.

Why Don’t More Churches Use Spiritual Discernment? – The Rev. David Malone	A retired Presbyterian minister wonders why clergy and church leaders do not embrace the learning and practices of discernment. Is it one task too many for ordained ministers who are expected to be “Jacks and Jills of all trades?” Or is it “just too intense for us or too strange a phenomenon?” He invites reader responses.

Volume 16, No. 1	Winter 2006

A Crack at the Right Time – Nancy Holloman-Peede	A Baptist minister and spiritual director reflects on her first encounter with God while peering through a crack between the boards of a dock at lake cabin. Discerning God’s leading “may be a lot closer that we realize” including the mundane moments of life, “for “any ole place is God’s place.”

The Power of Listening – Lisa Curtis	A Listening Hearts books discussion teaches the writer to wait patiently on God rather than adopting a “quick-fix” solution to the problem at hand. She notes that in a group setting, members need not provide answer to resolve troubling issues, but instead are “to merely listen or ask questions, and to allow the Holy Spirit space and time to work.”

Spiritual Discernment for Decision-Making Groups in the Church – Stephanie Hull	The practice of spiritual discernment changes a group’s dynamics, makin.g “meeting preparation and participation a conscious act of worship. It enables people to serve the church while simultaneously deepening their relationship to God and one another.”

Volume 16, No. 2	Spring 2006

Deferring to the Spirit – Suzanne Farnham	After developing basic information—e.g., what is our current situation, how did it develop—it is time to “move beyond humanly conceived questions” and “clear space for the Spirit of God to move freely.” There “time can stop” until the question or set of questions prompted by the Spirit emerges—questions that “tend to be evocative or deeply reflective.”

Listening into the Light – The Rev. Torrence Harman	An Episcopal priest describes a training week for diocesan spiritual discernment facilitators at the Richmond Hill Retreat Center in Richmond, VA.

Graced with Food for the Journey – Sven deBaars	A rising seminarian reflects on his experience as a seeker in group spiritual discernment in the Diocese of Virginia. Already a postulant for ordination, “what was new [for him] was the commitment . . . to allow spaces that the Spirit could fill.” The group “focused not on a task but on listening for God’s intention,” a process that graced him “with food for the journey.”

Volume 16, No. 3	Fall 2006

A Prayer for Humility – Suzanne Farnham	A prayer to “open our eyes and ears and hearts to discover what is ours to learn,” at a “terrifying” time when the church is fractured, the nation polarized, and the world seethes with hostility and anger

Discernment and Human Autonomy – Taylor McLean	Our responsibility for exercising personal judgment in responding to God’s call turns on the answer to the question: Who is at the center? Not by saying, “God, help us with what we want to do—smooth the way,” where we are at the center. Instead, by placing God at the center. There, “[f]ear and anxiety receded as we come into right relationship.”

Rare Beasts and Coming Home – Meg Kimble	Recovering from a first round of chemotherapy, the writer reflects on part of an Auden poem, For the Time Being: “He is the Way. / Follow him through the Land of Unlikeness; / you will see rare beasts and have unique adventures. / He is the Truth. / Seek him in the kingdom of Anxiety: / you will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.” She is grateful to have recently become a member of Listening Hearts Ministries, a place that “intentionally listens for the voice of God” and seems to have been expecting her.

Volume 17, No. 1	Winter 2007

Traversing God’s Mysterious Ways – Suzanne Farnham	The comprehension of God’s will is always incomplete, and we can never know how much our actions aligned with God. Nevertheless, “anyone who seriously tries to follow the path of spiritual discernment will grow ever closer to God and will develop ever strong relationships with people—and ultimately will see God bring forth abundant good out of choices made with a humble, listening heart.”

A Prayer for Discernment – Alice Dorrance	A trustee of Listening Hearts offers her prayer, which in part reads: “Lord God / We come searching for Your wisdom. / Grant us the ability to be still and listen.”

Where the Spirit is Free to Lead – John Seeley	An experienced member of Listening Hearts discernment groups reflects on two keys to effective discernment: love and prayer. Love, by drawing individuals together, and prayer, by inviting the Spirit to join the conversation.

Listening Hearts – C. Robin Janning	An abstract painter and writer meditates on silence, the “small light of candles,” and “the dancer” sowing grace like seeds at a Listening Hearts retreat.

Volume 17, No. 2	Spring 2007

God Calls Us to Reconcile – Suzanne Farnham	In our imperfections, we battle one another over those issues to which we attach supreme importance, and grow hostile toward those who disagree with us. Spiritual discernment in community creates an environment in which reconciliation may occur. When a group “surrenders itself to God in discernment,” the Spirit “may bring it together in a way that resolves the dispute. . ..” At the very least, the members assembled develop compassion for one another.

Strangely Warmed by Prayer – The Rev. Jenny Montgomery	The Chair of the Commission on Ministry for the Diocese of Central New York reflects on her experience at a Listening Hearts training session. She notes that Listening Hearts, “is more than just a training program. It is a means by which we as participants are invited into d deeper place of prayer and, with it, a deeper way of listening.” Several days after the training class, the writer “was hearing other people in a new way,” more apt to linger in conversation, less impatient with “superficial talk,” and “curious about what more needed to be said that wasn’t being said.”

A Quiet and Extravagant Devotion – Shelly Banner	An ordained deacon reflects on “devotedly listening for God in all we do” following a Listening Hearts diocesan training worship. “Extravagant devotion with listening silence is radical; it’s a disciple, a test of obedience, a death to self. And it carries transformational power.”

Volume 17, No. 3	Fall 2007

Changing the Culture of the Church – The Rev. David Malone	Listening Heart does not intend to add “one more idea” or “good technique” to the repertoire of church leadership. That is not its purpose. Instead, spiritual discernment is a “revolutionary movement” that “seeks nothing less than a change in the culture of the church by focusing Christian life on the movement of God’s Spirit.”

Noon Prayers – Meg Kimble	The Listening Hearts Ministries Executive Director describes noon prayer at the office and the network of people who prayer for the ministry on a regular basis, including “a small band of intercessors” who “hold each program in prayer as it approaches and while it is in session.”

Abide with Me – Brenda Dingwall	A participant at a Listening Hearts Training Week reflects on a moment during the week of “transformation and clarity” as she realized that God loved her, and that she did not have to earn God’s love, justify it, or even deserve it. Months later, the experience continued to have a profound effect: “My service has changed. I serve God because I am loved instead of so I will be loved.”

Vol. 18, No. 1	Winter 2008

New Dimensions of Faith – The Rev. Mark Frazier	The writer reflects on experiencing God’s Spirit as a participant in Diocesan Discernment Team Mentor training. “We mysteriously were able to meet the seeker where God was speaking to her, beginning to see together where God was leading her.”

Focusing on Deep, Prayerful Listening – Meg Kimble	A church vestry with a contentious culture begins to change after a Listening Hearts vestry and clergy weekend. After the retreat, one member created a poster-size print of the Discernment Listening Guidelines and hung them in the parish meeting room. The various groups who use the room “read the guidelines, sometimes aloud, sometimes referring to one or two of them.”

Practicing What We Teach – Alice Dorrance	A Listening Hearts Ministries trustee provides a detailed, in-depth and thoughtful description of the order and content of the group’s annual board meetings.

Volume 18, No. 2	Spring 2008

Doing the Little Things – Meg Kimble	The writer recollects a time as a mother of two young children as they stood in the kitchen and demanded attention. She compares it to Brother Lawrence, a monk who worked in a monastery kitchen and who lived his life as prayer, as told in The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence helped her to see that “there is room in [her] prayer life for both the quiet contemplative prayer and the prayer that happens while I do the seemingly little things.” One friend prays as she gardens, another while playing piano. For the writer, cooking is “a time of thanksgiving and prayer.”

Following the Spirit into Imagery – John Seeley	A discernment group met with a focus person – the one seeking discernment – who was a carpenter. Using images of tools—a sledge hammer and a claw hammer—helped to draw out the question of concern. “By following the Spirit into the imagery from the focus person’s daily life, the group avoided the ever-present trap of problem solving and helped him see the issue under discernment in a new light.”

A Week in Heaven – Judith Bowers	A descriptions of a week learning to be a Listening Hearts trainer along with several other men and women. “Strangers to each other at first, we moved toward a deep and lasting bond in a way that was out of and beyond time. We were enabled to do this in great part by the sessions design, with its physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions.”

Volume 18, No. 3	Fall 2008

A Prayer Fugue: Prayer in Community – Meg Kimble	In music, a fugue opens with a theme followed by many other voices, offering variations on the theme with all finally all voices return to the original. Like the art of fugue, “our prayer in community involves listening for each other’s voices and, together, listening for the voice of God.”

Waiting . . . and Waiting . . . and Waiting – The Rev. Thomas Wilson	Waiting is an essential element of the Listening Hearts discernment process. It is active waiting, requiring attentiveness, patience and quietude. Waiting is not, however, a “virtue prized by twenty-first century Americans. We have been programmed to expect results, right now—fast foods, cell phones, 24/7 availability of all sorts of things.” When we open ourselves up to waiting, “we allow God’s time to become our time.” Whether in a checkout line or waiting for an email response, or any other time when our patience is “growing thin,” we can prayerfully wait, seeing the time of waiting as an opportunity to be open to the presence of God.

The Holy Spirit Moving in Community – Carolyn Miller	The writer describes the experience of leading devotions for forty homeless women who come to a church from all walks of life for breakfast on Mondays. “Each time I lead the devotions, I start by talking about the importance of listening with our hearts, which means getting quiet, getting centered, and especially being aware that each person in the room should be treated with dignity and respect. . . When one of the women is sharing her spiritual experience, everyone listens intently.” She concludes, “My experience with Listening Hearts Ministries is paying off in myriad ways, not the least of which is tangible evidence of God’s presence in this complex community of women.”

Volume 19, No. 1	Winter 2009

“Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Faces” – The Rev. Tim Grayson	An Episcopal priest describes his encounters with a street person in San Francisco and finds his own response wanting. “I think Christ wanted to teach me something about how to respond when he appears unbidden, instead of dwelling on how to respond to him in a crisis.” In the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, “For Christ plays in ten thousand places / Lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not his / To the father through the features of men’s faces.”

Redemption – Alice Ann Robertson	At a Lenten presentation by Suzanne Farnham after the death of her husband of 40 years, the writer was “touched … as the Spirit of light called to the darkness within me.” She later describes the dinner she hosts each fall for the Listening Hearts Executive Board. “I almost hesitate to speak about this because I don’t want it to disappear. In serving them, I serve the King, who is present in these people whose hearts are ready to share and listen.”

Volume 19, No. 2	Spring 2009

The Desert Time – Suzanne Farnham	This time of economic uncertainty with a widening gap between the poor and the affluent is like wandering in an arid land. During this time, we need to “cultivate a space of inner quiet where we can establish a sense of communion with God—and with all who are created in God’s image, whether they live nearby of far away.”

Paying Attention to God’s Signs – Meg Kimble	C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series of books tells the story of four children in the land of Narnia and the guidance from the lion Aslan to “remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.” These signs the children fail to notice. In spiritual discernment, we need to know God’s signs, including peace, joy, energy, persistence and convergence. Yet as individuals, like the children in the story, we, too, can miss them. In “[t]raveling together as a discerning community held together in Christ, each one of us may at times become the one who catches sight of the sign and calls attention to it, providing guidance to the entire group.”

A Path to Spiritual Discernment – Alice Ann Robertson	Quiet time is a small, spiritual discipline. “Daily quiet time that includes scripture and prayer builds a foundation of faith that can’t be destroyed – shaken, yes; destroyed no.” In spending this time, we learn to hear God’s voice in hymns, in the words of friends, and in the still small voice that is so different from all others. Often, hearing this voice requires waiting.

Volume 19, No. 3	Fall 2009

“Turn, Turn, Turn” – The Rev. Cynthia Bell	A participant in a Listening Hearts discernment group experienced the time with the other members as musicians playing separate instruments. They “struggled toward harmony, listening for the silent notes beneath the music of our lives—searching and yearning, wrong turnings and poor decisions, loving and being loved, losing and being found.” The music did not fade after returning home, instead becoming a “soft, melodic background for fresh decisions I felt newly empowered to make with a sense of rightness and joy.”

Dancing Lessons – Margaret Bain	Ballroom dancing lessons offer the writer a chance to trust, follow, learn, and practice. As her instructor is talking about dancing skills, the writer senses that God is talking to her about life. “And I realize that if [the Lord] is leading, at times I must be moving backwards. Strangely, I find that comforting—I can’t possibly be expected to know what is going to happen.”

How Will We Know? – Meg Kimble	A vestry retreat group shifted from wondering, “Did we make the right choice” to “realizing the futility of depending on ourselves alone . . ..” It is then they “began truly to listen for God’s voice.” While the group did not reach consensus on the issue, it experienced, in the words of Grounded in God, “a sense of confidence at a very deep level” that “indicates that we are moving in the right direction.”

Volume 20, No. 1	Winter 2010

Tapping into Creative Forces – Suzanne Farnham	After clearly and concisely identifying the issue for discernment, a person seeking God’s guidance may call to mind an association, analogy or image of personal interest or passion—music, art, literature, nature, sports, technology or business, for example—as a means of discovering what God may be saying. As a visual or auditory image emerges, it may be held in one’s heart to follow where the Spirit may lead.

A Seed in Time – Alice Dorrance	Spiritual seeds of discernment planted at the writer’s church years ago continue to grow. “And so it is with God’s vision for humankind. We are given opportunities to carry God’s messages to others; we are entrusted with the carrying of a seed—an idea, a plan for the building up of His kingdom. Attentive listening and openness to God’s call require a bold and expectant faith.”

Volume 20, No. 2	Spring 2010

Discernment through Prayerfully Conceived Questions – Suzanne Farnham	Questions that unlock inner truths are central to spiritual discernment. Discovering truth within oneself is far more powerful than being told. “Sensitive questions allow reality to come into focus for us as we are gradually able to accept it. Emily Dickinson said, ‘The truth must dazzle gradually or every man will become blind.’” We can “tolerate God’s dazzling truth when we are nudged closer to it gently, one caring question at a time.”

Discernment about the End of Life – The Rev. Mark Frazier	Advanced care planning is an opportunity for spiritual discernment. Discussions on our wishes for how we die are “holy conversations.” They often take place in community with a clergy person, trusted friend of family member. They enable us to grow spiritually even as we contemplate the inevitability of death. “The same signs of God’s call relied upon in other settings”—including peace, serenity, joy and clarity—apply to end-of-life questions.

The Way to Listening Hearts – Meagan Howell	A job interview with LHM, including the interview; the practical questions that followed; the realization “with utter clarity” on the adverse impact that a long commute would have on the writer’s family; and a week of waiting. A change in job description ultimately made her employment possible. Looking back, she writes that “Sitting with the not-knowing is never easy, but it is a discomfort that can lead to wisdom and discovery. The weeks I spent on the path that led to joining [Listening Hearts Ministries] were characterized by openness and reflection, porousness and faith. Had the outcome been different, my gratitude for the journey would have been the same.”

Volume 20, No. 3	Fall 2010

Living the Questions – Amy Frazier	Although we may enter a discernment session hoping for spiritual consensus, we need to avoid equating “success” with clarity. “Instead, sometimes we’re simply left to live with the question we brought to the discernment session in the first place. And that’s OK – God is in this living.”

Anxiety and a Listening Heart – The Rev. Monique Ellison	During times of anxiety, the writer tends to rely upon her own will and quick wits rather than to listen for God’s will. She realizes that, “When anxiety is winning, we are making decisions so that we can survive.” Yet “[w]hen we are listening, God calls us to be the best of what we are created to be.” Spiritual discernment takes us, “even under pressure,” through a process that “’cleanses our vision to see what is true and frees our will to act on what we see,’” quoting Listening Hearts.

Volume 21, No. 1	Winter 2011

Listening with Others – The Rev. Canon Scott Slater	An Episcopal Canon to the Ordinary reflects on his role in meetings with vestries and advisory boards on behalf of the bishops. As one who gathers with the community but is not part of it, he is able to listen with greater objectivity. “Just as with Listening Hearts discernment,” in these settings he tends to ask questions. “Questions are the tools of the Spirit. I help groups open a space so that they can identify more clearly what the Spirit is saying to them.”

A Day with Rituals – Suzanne Zoole	The writer’s Listening Hearts group recently spent time considering God’s light. She reflects on rituals of prayer in the morning by sunlight and at night by candle light. “I want to do God’s will,” she writes, and the rituals of praying, reading and meditating “remind me of my deep desire to please Him.”

Baking Bread in Great Tranquility – Meagan Howell	A mother of two small children reflects on the presence of God while kneading dough. She reflects, “When we invite God to bake bread with us—or to rake leaves or fold laundry or bathe a child—we open ourselves to the joy of an intimacy that can overflow into every part of our life, sweetening the noise and clutter.”

Volume 21, No. 2	Spring 2011

Reflections of a First Time Author – The Rev. Timothy Grayson	The writer reflects on his experience in co-authoring, with Suzanne Farnham, Keeping in Tune with God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Clergy.

Listening as a Way of Love – R. Taylor McLean	Listening “may be essential to loving our neighbor, that in order to love someone we must listen to them.” A related thought is that God “not only loves us but God loves through us; which is another way of saying that God has work for us to do.” Our ability to listen and to love comes from an ongoing, personal relationship with God. “When we are close to the Lord, we see others with a compassion that is otherwise not there.”

Spiritual Curiosity – The Rev. Bruce McPherson	The writer discusses the difference between the rational right part of the brain, or logos, and the left part of the brain, or mythos—the part that seeks to makes sense of the world and provides a spiritual approach to the eternal. All of us, he writes, “are spiritually curious people. We are pilgrims in search of something ‘more’ . . . that makes sense out of life,” and the ‘more’ is God. Listening Hearts “develops the right brain” for “spiritually curious people like me . . . and you.”

Volume 21, No. 3	Fall 2011

Returning to our Monastic Roots – The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry	Phyllis Tickle in her book The Great Emergence “rightly observes that we are living in a period in which Christianity and the Church are undergoing a profound re-formation . . ..” In this time of transition, an Episcopal Bishop urges us to “claim our monastic heritage and grow as men and women of prayer, helping the Church to do the same. The practical possibilities and necessary actions will grow out of that.”

Church, Community, and the Holy Spirit – The Rev. Bruce McPherson & Meagan Howell	“Early Christians spoke of a locus communis, a common place where Christians lived in the Spirit together. It is this common place that the twenty-first-century Church yearns to recover and reclaim . . . . In its discipline of attentive spiritual listening, Listening Hearts teaches sensitivity to that call that beckons us home. It is a call that we hear most clearly when we welcome the Holy Spirit in community.”

Volume 22, No. 1	Winter 2012

Stop, Listen to God – The Rev. G. Holger Hanson	A retired United Methodist pastor describes the experience and outcomes of three Listening Hearts Ministries retreats considering the question, “God, how would you have us structure the life of Swarthmore United Methodist in a way that draws the congregation into a an ever-richer experience of the Sabbath?”

“Hear What the Spirit is Saying to the Church” – The Rev. Ned Morris	A vestry at the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Spartanburg, SC begins monthly meetings with two minutes of silence followed by reading aloud the Discernment Listening Guidelines. The silence serves as a transition to seeking to “hear what the Spirit is saying, “ as in the words of the angel to St. John of Patmos in the Book or Revelation. Getting past the many noises and voices that “vie for our attention . . . usually takes a lot longer than two minutes, but we have to start somewhere.”

Scientists Study Silence – Suzanne Farnham	Neuroscientific research demonstrates that when “the conscious part of the mind is subdued,” the unconscious part from which our spiritual energy flows is activated. “These studies attest to the effectiveness of contemplative prayer, which can be described as deep, prayerful listening.”

Volume 22, No. 2	Spring 2012

Treading on Holy Ground – The Rt. Rev. Robert Ihloff	A retired bishop reflects on leading a retreat for clergy based upon Keeping in Tune with God. He served as facilitator and also participated in a small group, which allowed him “to go deeper” in his own discernment, and to receive the help of others. “The exciting thing is that the end result is never predictable at the outset—the Spirit moves in unexpected ways.”

God’s Time – Rachel E. Barham	The vestry at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington D.C. “experienced God’s time” during a discernment retreat. “Once we started practicing the discernment guidelines, the insights everyone shared were truly amazing.” As vestry members prepare for a season of hard work, “We feel that we are all on God’s time.”

Listening for Sabbath – Alison Masterpasqua	At a Listening Hearts retreat, members of Swarthmore United Methodist Church contemplated the underlying principles of Sabbath: “On a regular basis, work hard over a substantial period of time. Then, on a regular basis, for a limited chunk of time, withdraw from the routine of daily life (responsibilities, pressures, business) to focus on God’s presence and share in a communal way.” Reflecting on these principles, the writer realized that Sabbath was no longer a list of restrictions on activity as she experienced in her childhood. Instead it is “a time to focus on God’s presence,” an “opportunity to remove myself from the busyness of life and to listen to my heart where God resides.”

Volume 22, No. 3	Fall 2012

Emerging with the Spirit – Mike Croghan	A common element shared by the various diverse communities of the “emerging church” is that “every single one of them” is practicing spiritual discernment in one form or another. “However, the language and traditional wisdom of spiritual discernment practices—that is, the gifts that Listening Hearts has to offer—are no better known in these circles than they are in other church settings. So, while we do discernment all the time, we don’t always do it very well.” The emerging church needs the gifts and wisdom of spiritual discernment offered by Listening Hearts.

Ecoute les Coeurs – Listening Hearts – Pastor Russell J. Atkinson	The pastor of Swarthmore United Methodist Church reflects on his time in sabbatical in Bayeux, France, and the work of Listening Hearts with his congregation while he was away. He quotes Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel—that the “higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.” Listening Hearts is not adding “more valuable facts, studies and data” to what we already know, but is instead helping us “see within ourselves and within our community to face each sacred moment.”

Volume 23, No. 1	Winter 2013

A Gift to the Emerging Church – The Rev. Bill Lupfer	Listening Hearts is positioned to bring the next generation back to the church. It offers transformational tools, including online resources and practical guidelines; adapts classical wisdom to modern challenges; and provides excellent tools to link prayer and action. A Listening Hearts discernment group helped the writer gain the insight to reach out and reconcile with his brother.

A Culture of Spiritual Discernment – The Rev. Dr. Laura Sheridan-Campbell	A Chairperson of a Commission on Ministry describes how the Diocese of San Diego is developing a “culture of spiritual discernment” by “drawing upon the Listening Hearts model for vocational ministry discernment.” She writes, “Too often, the Episcopal Church places responsibility for discernment for ordination in the hands of a very few and limits its scope to defined steps.”

Weaving Intercessory Prayer into Daily Activity – Suzanne Farnham	The writer integrates intercessory prayer into her life in two ways. First, through exercise—by holding one of her children and the child’s household in prayer as she slowly swims one lap at a time, then reversing direction and in like manner praying for the next child. Second, through the use of multi-colored Post-It Notes placed around her home. The Notes have a list of names of persons with specific needs so that when she notices a list, she can offer a brief prayer. While these practice are “no panacea,” the endeavor “bonds [her] at a deeper level with people, their needs, and God . . ..”

Volume 23, No. 2	Spring 2013

Do It Yourself Discernment – Mike Croghan	The article introduces readers to a new Listening Hearts resource: Do It Yourself Discernment: Practical Outlines for All Occasions. “Individuals and groups will be able to download these guidelines, make copies as needed, and apply them to real, everyday situations in their personal, family, and communal lives right away.”

Creating a Spiritual Tapestry – The Rev. Dr. Rosemary Beales	A clergy Listening Hearts retreat fed the writer’s spirit through guided reflections; solo and small-group exercises; doodling; and working with clay.

“One Step Enough for Me” – Joe Gill	A midlife reflection on living eternal time. “Living in eternal time is like driving an automobile late at night, on a road that we have not driven before.” On this road, “ages and stages of life fade, giving way to an eternal Light that illumines the road ahead.” Travel on the road is not across “great time and distances,” as the writer once thought. The root word for journey is the French jour, which means day. A journey is “a day’s travel, taking each day as it unfolds, prayerfully awaiting the people, events, and experiences that call us into God’s service.” In the words of Cardinal John Henry Newman, “Lead, kindly light … lead thou me on … I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.

Volume 23, No. 3	Fall 2013

The Spiritual Quest – Suzanne Farnham	The “spiritual quest” is to integrate the “tangible, physical world and the intangible, spiritual realm.” In the intangible world of spiritual discernment, “we are trying let what we know at some level, yet cannot consciously comprehend, rise to the surface.” We avoid discussion and debate, affirmation or condemnation, comforting or seeking comfort. “We actually avoid thinking.” Connecting the spiritual world with our visible world “means being attuned to God’s presence day and night.” This is the way of Listening Hearts.

Reclaiming the Words of Faith – Rachel Evangeline Barham	In beginning the practice of daily Bible reading, the writer gains a “new, intimate relationship with the Scriptures.” Though committed to the practice, she gives herself an out – “daily Scripture reading, prayer, and other devotion should not be a source of guilt.” If she has to skip a day, she tries at least to read a psalm or “say one of the prayers I’ve memorized while I’m brushing my teeth.” Still, the practice is habit-forming as she discovers new insights.

Volume 24, No. 1	Winter 2014

Waiting for the Spirit – Angela Gusa	A member of a Spiritual Formation Commission describes a Listening Hearts retreat and the freedom she felt when realizing that she does not have the answers. “Once again, I was reminded to quiet my mind as I open to God, wait and listen for the Spirit.”

A Flashlight and a Compass – Suzanne Farnham	Spiritual discernment “is like making your way through a forest at night with a flashlight and compass to guide you. The flashlight illuminates the compass and obstacles ahead. If we find “kindred spirits” to travel with us, all lights converge to illumine the way. “When dedicated spiritual companions set out as a group in covenant with one another, not only can they better see the way forward; they are likely to find themselves drawn into closer, deeper, more meaningful relationships with God and one another.”

Volume 24, No. 2	Spring 2014

Discernment and Confidentiality – The Rev. Nathan LeRud	Confidentiality in discernment provides a safe and supportive space. It is not the same as keeping secrets, which is divisive. “A discernment group is actually called to bring secrets into the light, to encourage the voicing of unvoiced thoughts, to help provide shape and context for deeply held sensations.” The discernment group’s task s not simply confidentiality but “stewardship of the sacred: it is in vulnerability, trust and openness to God in community that discernment happens.”

Wait, Listen, Surrender – Joan Diver	An author reflects on the journey that led to the writing of her book, When Spirit Calls: Daring to Listen. After completing the manuscript, five years passed. During this time, she resisted the temptation to self-publish and waited for “Spirit’s call.” An agent “miraculously appeared” and turned the work over to an editor. In the words of Howard Thurman: “We wait, we listen, we surrender ourselves, and then – we do!”

“Listen, Listen, Love, Love” – Nancy Burch	The writer compares her experience on a discernment commission for an ordination candidate using Listening Hearts with her prior time as a chaplain with Kairos Prison Ministry. The Kairos motto is “Listen, Listen, Love, Love.” In the instructional part, the first talk is entitled, “Spiritual Listening.” Listening with our hearts “enables us to minister compassionately and nonjudgmentally and to be totally present for each other.”

Volume 24, No. 3	Fall 2014

Focus and Fluidity – Suzanne Farnham	“Spiritual discernment can benefit from a simple format that sets boundaries and helps maintain focus while providing the fluidity that allows for interior movement.” The writer prescribes a six-step sequence of actions. Yet while structured efforts can “jump-start” the effort, “discerning one’s path is an ever-evolving process that is never complete.” With practice, and continuing to listen from one’s center, “the divine Spirit will guide you, revealing missteps and pointing the way to your truth path.”

Space for the Holy – The Rev. Susan Dean	The Executive Director of Underhill House in Seattle has an “unanticipated experience” of insight as she works with Wikki Stix at a Listening Hearts clergy retreat. “So here is what was revealed to me: If I do not cling, whatever I have been holding too tightly will have freedom to transform, and I may have an opportunity to see it in a new light.”

How to Cultivate Healthy Relationships With Your Independent Adult Children – Listening Hearts Ministries	This article provides a guidelines for developing mature relationships with adult children who do not live at home. While these relationships can be exhilarating and satisfying, they are challenging for a parent because they require “letting go of a desire to control the continuing development of the child.” The article was originally published as part of the Do-It-Yourself Discernment Series.

Volume 25, No. 1	Winter 2015

Saying Yes – Patty Brown	Mike, a participant at a Listening Hearts Day of Discernment in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, meditated on words from Psalm 37:7—“Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently.” He then wrote a poem with words moving from “But?” to “Later?” to Now?” and then finally to “Yes” – a yes to God. A month later, the writer, a co-facilitator at the retreat, experienced her own interior yes after reading these words from The Living Bible: “Take care to live in Me, and let me live in You.” Seeking to hear God’s will in our life, she writes, is work, prayer, conversation, constant and beautiful.

Day of Discernment at Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church – Eulalie Fenhagen	A former Listening Hearts trustee describes a Day of Discernment at her church. As one after another of the twenty-six participants “honestly and courageously offered questions aloud,” the writer “experienced an epiphany: we are a community of people in transition, hungry, hurting, yearning for healing.” Despite all of the activity that makes up the life of a church, “there are few opportunities to really touch the depth of our souls. This space together, this workshop, and its able leadership, enabled that touch.”

How to be With a Family When a Loved One Dies – Listening Hearts Ministries	The article provides guidelines on discerning ways to be present to family members who are experiencing the death of someone they love. “Family” includes treasured friends, caregivers, and others close to the person who has died. The article was originally published as part of the Do-It-Yourself Discernment Series.

Volume 25, No. 2	Spring 2015

The Still Point and Modern Science – Suzanne Farnham	Scripture conveys God “as both the center and the circumference, the source that is within yet encompasses all that is.” Evidence observed by astrophysicists is consistent with this spiritual reality. It confirms that the entire mass of the universe was once concentrated into a single point, marking the beginning of creation. The poet T.S. Eliot “perceived something akin to this” when he wrote in Four Quartets that there is a “still point at the center of the turning world,” a point at which “there is neither movement nor arrest.” The still point reminds the writer of words written by St. Ambrose: “O God, creation’s secret force, / Thyself unmoved, all motion’s source, / Who from the morn till evening ray / Through all its changes guid’st the day.”

Practicing God’s Presence – Joe Gill	A reflection on the words of Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God and a former teacher who, in his last book, wrote of “letting our ongoing conversation with ourselves become an ongoing conversation with God.” If we let this happen, if we give each moment to God just as it occurs, we live in the present and practice the presence of God, “wherever we go and in whatever we do.”

Spiritual Conflict Resolution – Listening Hearts Ministries	Listening Hearts has a retreat for spiritual conflict resolution called “Opening the Ear of Your Heart” applicable to congregations, denominations, or church-related institutions. The article provides comments from one retreat offered by program participants.

Volume 25, No. 3	Fall 2015

In the Light of God’s Presence – R. Taylor McLean	Another aspect of call, applicable to all God’s people, is that we need to live close to the Lord if we “are going to be his useful people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “It is certain that we can always live close to God and in the light of His presence.” St. Paul especially emphasized the importance of living in, or belonging to, the Lord. In the writer’s view, “God has work for his people to do, but without this mutual indwelling, we can do nothing.”

A Gift of Insight and Calm – Edward Mortimore	A long-time participant in spiritual discernment groups reflects on the discernment process. He notes how, in one meeting with a focus person, seasoned discerners refrained from giving advice. One of the discerners asked the focus person to hold the discernment question in her heart and to let an image arise. After a period of prayerful silence, she described a “vivid and powerful image” which “enabled her to see the question from a different perspective, bringing clarity and hope.”

Formulating A Question for Discernment – Listening Hearts Ministries	“Good spiritual discernment begins with discerning the question.” The article describes the beginning steps. It was originally published as a guide on the Listening Hearts Ministries website.

Volume 26, No. 1	Winter 2016

Questions, Imagination, and Einstein – Suzanne Farnham	Albert Einstein approached both physics and the meaning of life by wondering, asking questions, waiting for an image to emerge, and exploring and ruminating on it over time. Listening Hearts discernment follows a similar process, taking a prayerfully conceived question, tapping into the imagination, and, without rushing, allowing time “for threads to come together and reveal previously unseen patterns that slowly move them to new insight and a place of deep peace—the ultimate sign of the Spirit.” Einstein would convene with colleagues to exchange ideas and explore hypotheses, similar to Listening Hearts spiritual seekers meeting in small groups. “At this point in human history, science and religion are converging, pursuing the same mysteries, although from different perspectives and using different vocabularies.”

True Confessions – The Rev. Tim Grayson	Coming back from a three-day retreat, the writer is stunned by the noise, pace and stress of re-entry. He identifies technology – particularly smart phones – as “the heart of our disease,” comparing our habit of constantly checking our cell phones to the acedia or spiritual listlessness experienced by monks in the Egyptian desert in the 4^th century. A better habit is to say “micro prayers”—to direct our thoughts to God, if only briefly—throughout the day to help us “remain in thrall to the One who made us, rather than to a device that will devour all of our free time if we allow it.”

How to Discern One’s Own Racial and Ethnic Prejudices – Listening Hearts Ministries	A deeper level of racism finds its place in the unconscious. As confirmed by contemporary neuroscience, a series of incidents or even a single incident “can instill fear manifesting itself in automatic, unconscious associations” when encountering a person who is from the so-called “other” group. “Only as we become conscious of our own racism can we remedy it.” The article provides guidelines to help us discern our own racial and ethnic prejudices. It is a condensed version of a longer article published on the Listening Hearts website.

Volume 26, No. 2	Spring 2016

Helping Others Find Their Way – Kathleen Drew DeBoalt	An interview of Suzanne Farnham in the Baltimore Sun Magazine published in 1992 is reprinted here. The preface to it notes that although it was published nearly a quarter a century ago, “our ministry has stayed focused on its core values, and its central message remains what it has been from the beginning.”

The Labyrinth: A Sacred Space, Ancient Pattern – Alice Dorrance	A labyrinth is mystical, spiritual, and transformational. “A rhythm emerges while one walks slowly, one foot in front of the other; the rhythm allows the heart to rest in the presence of the Holy. . . .” Walking into the labyrinth “can be seen as leaving everything behind, as in shedding, or letting go. Spending time in the center can give a sense of having arrived and feeling a closeness to God. Following the path out is preparation to re-enter the world while pondering what might come next.”

Volume 26, No. 3	Fall 2016

Why Contemplate? – Suzanne Farnham	A meditation on the purpose, practice, and benefits of contemplative prayer. As this form of prayer evolves into a natural part of one’s life, “signs of the Spirit may start to spring forth: increased empathy, surging energy, sudden insights, bursts of creativity, joy, or a deep sense of peace, to name a few.” So, she asks, “Why not contemplate?”

Life in Discernment – The Rev. Sara Shisler Goff	An Episcopal priest describes the uncertain and at times frustrating and disconcerting path leading to her ordination. During the process, she “often felt that I could see only the next right step or glimpses into what the future could be, rather than visualize the road map for the path ahead.” After ordination, new questions arose. The writer realizes that when a particular time of discernment ends, “a new season of discernment is always around the corner.” If God is continually working in us—if we are always becoming—“then we are always, in some sense, discerning.”

Quotes and Photos from the August 2016 Training Week for Trainers – Listening Hearts Ministries	Four students spent a week in August participating in a training week with two retreat leaders to equip the students to begin their own Listening Hearts discernment ministries. Quotes and photos capture some of the experience.

Volume 27, No. 1	Winter 2017

A Sacred Quest – Suzanne Farnham	At the center of our being is “a point of contact where God’s center converges with our center.” Spiritual discernment is our QUEST to be at that center. It is not about getting answers but opening ourselves to a questions that can “come to life in us, raise our level of consciousness, and guide us we tread our path.” Spiritual discernment is not “a once in a while event” but instead a “way of being in which we journey, engulfed in God, moving one step forward at a time—as we continue to live the questions.”

in presence of eternity – mike crogan	A poem reflecting on the stillness of one early Friday morning at a Listening Hearts training week: “enfolded in green arms of / elder mountains settled / peacefully beside / wide water” … birds cry out in new day’s bliss / and while the mist recedes / its tranquil moisture is renewed / in tears of joy.”

Going Deeper – The Rev. Sara Shisler Goff	As the writer explored her discernment issue with other participants at a listening Hearts training week, “something shifted” inside her. She “moved from being anxious about not knowing exactly what to do about the issue” to “ a “sense of peace.” She writes, “I realized that what to do would be revealed in time. I was being called to go deeper into my relationship with God and to trust that from that deeper place, I would be led.”

Volume 27, No. 2	Spring 2017

One Parish’s Experience in Discerning . . . Everything! – The Rev. Grey Maggiano	At Memorial Church in Baltimore, Listening Hearts guiding principles are used for organizing vestry, committee and staff meetings. The article offers several practical steps for using them. Here is one: “Instead of beginning and ending with sometimes rushed prayers and reflections, we spend the majority of the meeting in prayer. We create rituals around our work—reading the Listening Hearts Guidelines, studying Scripture, allowing for silence . . ..” Each meeting begins with a simple statement from the Guidelines: “Take time to become settled in God’s presence.”

A Quiet Place to Pause for Prayer – The Rev. Susan Dean	The founder and executive director of Underhill House in Seattle describes it as a “quiet place to pause for prayer or meditation.” Evelyn Underhill, for whom the ministry is named, “taught that the two most important spiritual practices are prayer and serving the poor.” Underhill House welcomes people “of all faiths and no faith,” with a “strong commitment” to inviting people of low and no income. “In a world where people seem increasingly suspicious and afraid of one another, we hope to be a safe place to gather people who might not otherwise be in one another’s presence. There’s comfort in being together, even when you don’t know anything about each other.”

Volume 27, No. 3	Fall 2017

Introduction to Our 30^th Anniversary Issue – Suzanne Farnham	The founder hearkens back to the beginnings of the ministry and introduces readers to this 30^th anniversary issue of Explorations. The issue “offers a small scrapbook of vignettes from various Listening Hearts publications over time.”

A Name Change – R. Taylor McLean,	The article, from 1996, describes the change from “The Christian Vocation Project” to Listening Hearts Ministries. “Listening Hearts Ministries … it has a good ring to it.”

Select Quotations from Listening Hearts Publications	Quotations from Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community, 20^th Anniversary Edition (2011), Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations (1996), and Keeping in Tune with God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Clergy (2011).

Excerpts from Articles in Past Issues of Explorations	Consensus Through Christ in Community, Suzanne Farnham, 1992; Meditation on a Pine Cone, The Right Rev. A. Theodore Eastman, 1997; and Healing of the Spirit, Joan Diver, 2001

Volume 28, No. 1	Winter 2018

Seeing with Our Ears, Listening with Our Eyes – Janet Aldrich	A reflection on listening and spiritual discernment. Sitting across from one another in discernment circles, often around a candle, “we readily being to see into each other’s words and to listen for signs of the Spirit manifested in the sparkle in eyes, smiles on faces, or tears on cheeks.” “Deep listening”—listening with compassion and understanding—is something miraculous for the listener and the speaker, a place where “our spirits expand.” The article closes by quoting Frederick Buechner: “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.”

The Language of Silence – Paula Franck	A comparison between the objectives and techniques of spiritual direction and Listening Hearts discernment. She quotes Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest: “You have within yourself the answer to every question you propose—if you only knew how to look for it.” Thus, she writes, “the role of a spiritual director, as well as a Listening Hearts focus group, is not to provide answers but to create space so that an individual can move towards a sense of clearness through prayerful listening and clarifying questions.” Silence is integral to both. As described by Meister Eckart, silence is a “language that is infinitely deeper, more far reaching, more understanding, more compassionate, and more eternal than any other language.”

Volume 28, No. 2	Spring 2018

Discernment as Withdrawal And Return – Suzanne Farnham	Spiritual discernment begins in the head, considering the question for discernment with our rational faculties. It then descends to the center, to the realm of the collective unconscious. Once we have lingered there, and as discernment emerges, we begin the return to the surface. We identify signs of the Spirit, determine our response, and step back into the world of everyday life to act on our what we have learned, keeping in mind that God “does not work according to any timetable we may set.”

God is Energy – Anne Rosenbaum	God as energy, written as a poem. It begins, “God is in us, runs through us and all about us. / God is energy – / no beginning, no end, always transforming . . .”

The Possibility of Being Heard – Jim Goodmann	The Associate Director of the Beecken Center of the School of Theology reflects on his experience at a Listening Hearts retreat. He notes the importance of time set aside: “Spending three hours as a convener, or as discerners or the focus person, may seem like an extravagant use of time, but three hours may be what it takes to cultivate an attentive and open space for the divine presence to manifest itself . . ..” Listening Hearts and similar practices reaffirms that “what we often call a luxury—time—may be the one thing necessary if the Church is to become a genuinely courageous presence in the larger culture. A bold and courageous witness to the suffering of the world and an advocate for its amelioration can only be sustained by a persistent practice of listening deeply, prayerfully.”

“God is Love” is – Mike Croghan	A short poem on reflections of God’s love through the aspiration, recognition, invitation and reverberation of the Universe.

Volume 28, No. 3	Fall 2018

How Do We Distinguish the Voice of God from All the Other Voices? – Susan Heath	The question posed by the article’s title—How Do We Distinguish the Voice of God from All the Other Voices—is the one most often asked during parish discernment committee training. 1 John 4:1 teaches, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Scriptural meditation and contemplative prayer help us test and understand whether the “hints and nudges” that we receive “are truly from God.” A Christian community—such as a Listening Hearts Spiritual Discernment Group—can also help test the spirits. As “one soul encounters a community of souls,” the “Christ in one sees the Christ in others, and the voice of God can be heard by all.”

Spiritual Discernment: A Glossary for Extending Practice into Life – Jim Goodmann	The article explores the practical meanings of words and phrases that may be heard in a Listening Hearts circle: listen; open and honest questions; practicing the presence of God; and the fullness of time.

Volume 29, No. 1	Winter 2019

How Contemplation is Working in Me – Suzanne Farnham	Consciousness—what we are aware of—“is only the tip of the iceberg—that which is above the surface.” It is the unconscious that is the “point of access to God’s wisdom.” Accessing the unconscious requires inner stillness, leaving behind thoughts, words, and feelings. “It seems like the unconscious” is “embedded” in the body. Now when the writer tries to be centered, she leaves behind all words and instead becomes “attuned to God’s presence in every cell of [her] body—upon waking in the morning, when settling into bed at night, and at random times in between.” This is how contemplation is working in her.

Living Lives of Discernment – The Rev. Canon Martha Ishman	Discernment “is about finding a way forward when God has placed something on your heart, but it also can be a way of life.” The writer describes questions and life circumstances leading to discernment and how, over time, we “begin to understand that we are not only seeking discernment but rather leading lives of discernment.” In the words of Henry Nouwen, discernment is “a lifelong commitment to ‘remember God,’ know who you are, and pay close attention to what the Spirit is saying today.”

Ask the Animals – Mike Croghan	A short poem subtitled, “a poetic response to Job 12:7-10,” which begins, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you . . ..”

Listening with Heart – Bruce Ray	At a Listening Hearts training retreat, the writer “experienced the Spirit’s breath” in his body, replacing anxiety with calm. He realized that discernment “cannot come from our own understanding” but instead in trusting God’s presence. “So much of what we see and do not see” he writes, “depends on the framing of our story.” In his own individual frame, his “many pieces remained scattered where they had fallen.” But in discerning “the Spirit’s view, his life “widens, deepens and becomes bigger,” reframing his vision toward God’s salvation story, which integrates all the pieces.”

Volume 29, No. 2	Spring 2019

A Meditation on the Thread – The Rev. Martha Harris	At the end of Senior Program Associate training, a retired priest, who had spent the past year “almost in hibernation,” wonders how much of herself she can give to Listening Hearts Ministries. She writes, “I worried that I was disappointing the mentors, who had such faith in us.” Other trainees also shared questions and concerns. On the last night of the retreat, the writer went to bed “troubled and torn.” The next day, though, shared Scriptures “shifted us from staying in our heads to claiming the hope lodged in our hearts.” Reflecting on the words of a William Stafford poem, “There’s thread you follow . . . / While you hold it, you can’t get lost,” the writer is “grateful to Listening Hearts Ministries for offering me a new opportunity for service and challenging me to pick up my thread.”

Three Poems – Wendy Gale	Writing poetry is a method of spiritual meditation and way of showing intention. The poems are titled Climbing the Wall, Alleluia, and The Scenic Route.

God’s Time – Lisa Houston	At a Senior Program Associates training week, the writer learns that God’s time “is like the unfolding of a rose,” a process that “can’t be rushed, just savored.”

Volume 29, No.3	Fall 2019

Listen, Listen to the Holy Spirit – Mary Chandler Bolin	The writer looks back on the 40+ years of her spiritual road as she continues to exchange, with the Holy Spirit, the question, “What would you have me do?” Her Listening Hearts discernment group bought her into “renewed awareness” of her need for “deep, prolonged silences—to listen, listen, listen to the Holy Spirit.” Her answer to the question what would you have me do is “trust the process” and “listen for the Spirit.”

Lying in the Hammock – The Rev. Susan Dean	A set of meditations. At an interfaith global healing workshop, the writer, the founder and executive director of Underhill House, shares a story of lying in a hammock on the advice of her spiritual director, who told her to “pray about what you want.” It was there that she realized, “I want to be a priest and I want to build a house of prayer.” “Prayer,” said Evelyn Underhill, is the grass roots of change that leads us to service in the world.” The writer adds to her shared story the Christian Scripture about a woman who wanted to be healed so badly that she “quietly moves through a crowd and snakes up behind Jeus to touch just the hem of his robe.” When she does, she is made well.

Discerning in Community – D.W. Morrill	At a Listening Hearts program called “How to Listen for the Voice of God,” the writer, newly retired, realizes that a writing business he had recently started “actually felt not that important.” Rather, he was being drawn toward the fine arts and music, and has since explored both. “Where will any of this lead?” he asks. He answers his own question: “I can’t say, but I can say I firmly believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to ‘break through’ when we discern in community.”

Volume 30, No. 1	Winter 2020

The Wordless Word – Suzanne Farnham	For over sixty years, the writer used verbal practices—a sacred word, mantra, or chant—in her prayers. “Suddenly,” she writes, “they all failed me.” Then it came to her that verbal words reside in the head, where consciousness resides, but contemplation beckons us into what Carl Jung called the “unconscious”—where all that we have experienced but cannot remember lies hidden, including the “collective unconscious” shared by humankind. The unconscious is a “gateway to God’s love, truth, and creative energy,” and the “spiritual quest” is to “raise what is unconscious to consciousness.” The unconscious “seems to be embedded in the body.” Now, the writer’s pathway to contemplation is “to flex” her body “rather than utter a word” so as to “awaken every cell … to God’s abiding presence.” She is living with her “wordless word.”

Enough for Me – The Rev. Timothy Grayson	Gerard Manley Hopkins in God’s Grandeur wrote, “for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eye not his. To the Father through the features of men’s faces.” The writer “went to Israel to find Jesus among the storied geography of its holy sites . . ..” Instead, Jesus “kept cropping up in the guise of fellow pilgrims and complete strangers.” In the end, and “perhaps predictably,” the “people I met along the way” left “the most enduring impression.”

Imago Dei – Mike Croghan	A poem on ways we are made in the image of God, ending with: “Now, tell me the rule / which weighs heavier in God’s balance / than the precious worth and dignity / of me or you.”

Ministry vs. Job – Anna Sandberg	On the difference between a ministry and a job. One example: “If your concern is success, it’s a job. If your concern is faithfulness and service, it’s a ministry.”

Volume 30, No. 2	Spring 2020

The Time Given Us – Joe Gill	A reflection on the Covid-19 pandemic, our faith, and the future. There have been twenty pandemics over the past two millennia. “Pain, suffering, and yes, even pandemics are part of the fabric of earthly existence.” The second part of the Serenity Prayer implores us to accept hardship “as the pathway to peace / Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is / Not as I would have it. / Trusting that He will make all things right / if I surrender to His will. On the pandemic as part of our future, the writer turns to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. There, referring to the dark forces of Sauron rising to overcome Middle-earth, Frodo laments, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” The wizard Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Loving Energy Fills the Air – Suzanne Farnham	Only recently has the writer begun to try and “stop” when she witnesses or experiences God’s love so alive in other people. When this happens, she takes, and suggests that we can all take, four steps: “Pause / Tap into the surge of loving energy. / Absorb it. / Honor it with a thankful heart.”

A Call to Redemption – Joe Gill	Climate change, natural disasters, politics, and now a pandemic – all are prone to cause, in Annie Dillard’s words, “reality fatigue.” The writer introduces the sixteenth century ascetic rabbi Isaac Luria, who believed that God was in exile, the “sparks” of “divine light” having become “embedded in the world of matter” at the time of creation. Luria was often in despair. In contrast, two centuries later, the eighteen century rabbi Baal Shem Tov saw the same sparks as “God within.” He preached that through a life of prayer, holiness, and service, the divine sparks would be freed, releasing God into the world. Said the rabbi, “It is given to men to lift the fallen and to free the imprisoned. Not merely to wait, not merely to look on! Man is able to work for the redemption of the world.” The writer sides with the Baal Shem Tov: “The appropriate response to reality fatigue is not despair. The response is redemption: to free the sparks of the divine in daily acts of service.”

All Will Be Well – Wendy Gayle	A short poem on “resting in the peace of the Spirit.”

Volume 30, No. 3	Fall 2020

A Spanish Translation of Listening Hearts – Joe Gill	The article discusses the steps leading to publication of Corazones Escuchando, from discussions among trustees to seeking guidance and endorsements from individuals active in Latino ministries to contacting the publisher. “How this came to be is a story of call, persistence, response, and convergence.”

Listening to God in Themselves – Judith Bowers and Kathleen Rawson	A group of six to eight people met weekly for five weeks on Sunday afternoons to discuss Listening Hearts: Discerning Call to Ministry and meditations from Heartlinks on the Listening Hearts website. The experience was “a gift of being in … palpable community and Spirit.” Everyone “readily engaged in lively discourse, gaining insight into new avenues for seeing God in their lives.”

Amen – Wendy Gayle	A short poem on praying through the day. “As / I move / through my day / getting things done / I pray as I go.”

Volume 31, No. 1	Winter 2021

Let’s Truly Listen – Suzanne Farnham – Frances Sullinger	The Listening Hearts Discernment Guidelines are recast into seven simple steps for individuals. “People who hold different values may never agree with each other, but we can come to appreciate one another’s points of view and deep-seated desires. All of us yearn to be understood.”

Graced Moments – The Rev. Larry Ehren	A week of learning and practicing spiritual discernment with Listening Hearts was a “series of graced moments,” defined as “very real experiences during which you are touched by God, and after which you are never the same.” He notes that the Listening Hearts model is used by his diocese for ordained ministries, that its methods are being added to adult catechumenate ministry, and that he is using it to assist an ecumenical group in determining its future. “I am deeply struck by my recent discovery that the Listening Hearts discernment model can be implemented in a number of pastoral applications in my life. Eureka!”

When the Going Gets Tough… – Katrina Kenison	A poem on responding to life’s challenges sent to Listening Hearts by program participant Dr. Mary Chandler Boldin. It begins, “When the going gets tough, may I resist my first impulse to wade in, fix, explain, resolve and restore. / May I sit down instead. / When the going gets tough, may I be quiet. / May I steep for a while in stillness.” The writer of the poem is the author of several spiritual books.

Volume 31, No. 2	Spring 2021

Listening Hearts Launches its Ministry into the Future – Suzanne Farnham	The article introduces the 30^th Anniversary Edition of Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community. It describes the changes made since the previous edition, including a “newly written introduction” that “makes a special point of welcoming seekers who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, as well as readers from other faith traditions.”

In Memoriam: Coauthor and Trustee R. Taylor “Teto” McLean – Joe Gill	The writer remembers Teto McLean, who passed away at the age of 92. “His hallmarks were humility and humor—a twinkle in his eye was ever-present—and his strong sense of purpose. Often, he would say—and mean it—that ‘God has work for us to do.’” The article includes a story Teto once told, of a time in his 20s when he turned to God in prayer and experienced the Lord’s presence. Of this, Teto later wrote, “And that experience of turning to God and finding Him has remained central to my existence ever since.”

Full Body, Full-time Contemplative Prayer – Suzanne Farnham	In Seeking God, Esther de Waal beckons us to “listen with every fibre of our being, at every moment of the day.” The writer reflects on trying to open every cell of her body to God’s presence—”a presence that permeates everything visible and invisible”—as she goes through the activity of daily life. This kind of prayer, she writes, “requires deliberate cultivation.” While in many circumstances it “totally disappears,” especially when she gets task-oriented, it has “borne unanticipated fruits in abundance and many blessings.”

Volume 31, No. 3	Fall 2021

On Translating Listening Hearts into Spanish – Joe Gill	The article discusses translating Listening Hearts into Corazones que escuchan. The translator, Dr. Pura Reyes, has a Ph.D. in Language and Literature/Translations and a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Of her work on the book, Dr. Reyes wrote, “The text in English is amazingly well-written. The language is simple, direct, and very readable.” She later reported that the experience of translating Listening Hearts moved her to rethink where she was in the practice of her own faith.

What Has a Website Got to Do with the Holy Spirit? – Mike Croghan	The Holy Spirit’s role is “often one of connection,” e.g., descending on Jesus at his baptism to connect him to his Father and mission, and on the disciples as tongues of fire at Pentecost to connect them to the risen Lord and empower them to share the gospels with listeners in many languages. The role of a website is also one of connection—a connection “between the person or organization that created it and the many people the creators hope will respond to their message . . . .” The article introduces readers to the new website of Listening Hearts Ministries, a forum “overflowing with resources to connect readers with the ministry, programs and practices of Listening Hearts … which are all about the Holy Spirit!”

Volume 32, No. 1	Winter 2022

Being Church in a Pandemic – The Rev. Timothy H. Grayson	A parish priest looks back on the transition to on-line church service during the pandemic, and how worship has changed. While the church “will never be the same,” that “might be a good thing” as the Holy Spirit “has a habit of “roiling the waters.” In particular, reflecting on the definition of contemplation, from Walter Burghardt, S.J., as a “long, loving look at the real,” the writer senses “a new willingness to examine” our interior lives, and a greater appreciation of the “healing power of silence and the benefits of prayerful listening—listening deeply to Christ in ourselves and in each other.”

Discerning a Way into Retirement – The Rev. Brian Fidler	When first advising people of his retirement, the universal question asked of the writer was, “What are you doing to do?” Years later, after retirement and finding himself volunteering for multiple ministries within the church, he attended a Listening Hearts retreat. There, a “deeper, quieter discernment,” led him to reconnect with past writing projects and to discover a greater balance of how simply “be.” Discernment, he concludes, is not a “once-and-for-all” activity but continues in this “new chapter” of his life, as he prays daily “for the capacity to listen, to discern my way into retirement.”

discernment – Mike Croghan	A poem on listening for the promptings of the Spirit “trusting in something within me ready to be activated” in response.

Volume 32, No. 2	Spring 2022

My Experience with Prayerful Listening – Frances Sullinger	The Listening Hearts Discernment Guidelines changed the dynamics of the writer’s church vestry meetings. “Almost immediately members of the group became more courteous to one another and began to respect each other’s ideas.” The writer later led retreats with other church vestries, using the Guidelines and experiencing similar results as “staid fiduciary thought” turned into “spiritual discernment to discern God’s will in their work.” Not long ago, she served on a parish Search Committee for a new rector. The group spent a day with Stephanie Hull, one of the authors of Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations, and renamed itself “the Discernment Committee.” The article concludes with the ten Discernment Listening Guidelines, printed in Appendix 1 of Grounded in God.

What Does it Mean to Truly Listen? – Susan Heath	Listening begins with learning to settle into silence. “Breathing in God’s breath, centering ourselves in God’s faithful presence, we are able to become still and allow our minds to descend to our hearts.” There, we are able to listen to another person with our whole selves “for the how and why—for the meaning and revelation—of what someone is saying.” Just listening “without judging or trying to fix” the person is a “gift of more than presence. It is an act of holy acceptance and witness to the truth of another, a way of fully seeing and coming to know another.”

Volume 32, No. 3	Fall 2022

God As An Electric Grid – Suzanne Farnham	The writer meditates on two science-based documentaries. The first, “The Unconscious” – described the beginning of the Universe and the evolution of consciousness through an electrical energy that “connects the entire history of the cosmos.” The unconscious, said the program narrator, is God. The evolution of consciousness provides a scientific basis for what Carl Jung referred to as the “collective unconscious,” which “encompasses the entire history of mankind and influences all people at a subliminal level.” We are able to access the collective unconscious “through meditative exploration to draw lessons from the veiled experience of countless generations.” The second program, “The Senses,” posited that everything we experience in our life that enters our body through contact with eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin “is present within us whether we consciously remember it or not.” This sensory experience creates a “personal unconscious” that connects with the collective unconscious, and the two, the writer believes, “remain in contact during our life on earth.” This discovery is strengthening her life in God, with God “actively present throughout my entire body.”

Electric – Mike Croghan	A poem on the start of the universe and the “electricity of Creation” coursing through the cosmos, “expanding, evolving and becoming,” leading to a “brand new form” and a “blessed birth” in a “mother’s womb.” And then, the child, “Electric with the Spirit of your Creator / Growing, learning, becoming / Each moment more fully yourself / Until the day that you sense the divine electricity / and know deeply that you are home.”

Our Divine Connection to All Creation – Frances Sullinger	A review of Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, by the Celtic theologian John Philip Newell. The book “speaks of our divine connection to all creation—the earth, the heavens, the animals. God inhabits all . . ..” The Celtic tradition,” notes the reviewer, “cannot be reduced to a set of doctrines.” Rather, “at its core is the conviction that we need to keep listening to what our soul already knows from the circumstances of our personal lives as well as matters universal.” Newell concludes the book by commending “a sharpened scientific understanding of the single flow of life that courses through the body of the universe.”

Volume 33, No. 1	Winter 2023

Praying the Question – Mike Croghan	The Church of the Common Table was an eclectic spiritual community made up of people who had found wanting mainline and evangelical communities. Founded in 2001, it approached worship, service and leadership “in an open way, with each aspect emerging from a consensus of the congregants.” Fifteen years later, in 2017, membership had dwindled and the future of the ministry was uncertain. The group came together to discern its future, using tools and practices provided by Listening Hearts and asking, God, where would you have us, the Church of the Common Table, go from here? By asking “what God would have us” do rather than what we should do, the group “stayed within the territory of prayer. . ..” By phrasing the question, where do we go from here, members kept their focus simply on the next step, in the spirit of the Meron prayer: “We do not see the road ahead of us.” After continuing its discernment over the next two years, the Church of the Common Table ultimately came to a consensus to dissolve. Its members understood that in this time of “great change for all kinds of church communities,” they “must remember that God is the God of both beginnings and endings, and remember to hold our desires and opinions—even our convictions—lightly.”

Discovering Discernment in the Wildhorse Saloon – Mabeth Hudson	After learning about spiritual discernment in a conversation in a pub with a friend who was discerning a call to the priesthood, the writer asked, “Is this discernment open to everyone?” and “Can I ask God for guidance, too?” The conversation led her to Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community. Over time, discernment became for her “a beloved practice of seeking to listen for God in all of my life and helping others do the same.”

Volume 33, No. 2	Spring 2023

Keep on Sifting – The Rt. Rev. Gladstone B. Adams III	A retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York uses the image of sifting deep, moist dark topsoil as a metaphor for sorting through the many several possibilities that come our way, breaking up clumps of unwellness, fear, mistrust, and anything indicating our heart’s resistance to the Spirit’s movement. “Be a sifter,” he says. “Receive the richness of what has been placed before you.” Listen, breathe, keep silence, hope, love and then, with Jesus, pray. “Somewhere along the way take a step, make a decision, perhaps sifting some more, all the while secure in the arms of God who loves us with wild abandon.”

Gratitude as Gently Flowing Discernment – Suzanne Farnham	A reflection on the “countless small blessings” that surface in a regular day, and how the impact of gratitude for them is stronger and more lasting if we are attentive as they occur. As we try to live a life of gratitude, “we find a form of spiritual discernment unfolding without our even realizing it.” As Deepak Chopra wrote, “Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, and the creativity of the universe.”

Gratitude – Mike Croghan	An ode to a day of “immense beauty high up on a mountain, the writer’s feet so “drunk with joy . . . they no longer can refrain from dancing!”

Volume 33, No. 3	Fall 2023

Full-body Prayer – Suzanne Farnham	God is present in every cell of our bodies. Randomly setting her mind in her flesh and bones in the course of the day and night deepens the writer’s relationship with God, and improves her relationship with people. Still, an “active mind is an essential corollary. Thinking, reading, watching educational TV programs, research, discussion, and debate provide a vital foundation for this wordless prayer.” As her relationship with God and creation is far from perfect, she prays, in the words of Edwin Hatch: “Breathe on me, Breath of God, / Till I am wholly thine, / Till all this earthly part of me / Glows with thy fire divine.”

The Benefits of Parish Discernment Committees – Doris Christopher	A description of training as a Parish Discernment Committee [PDC] leader in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. “For a PDC to be successful, the inquirer must be open to the Spirit and allow the gentle questioning of the committee to guide them to a greater understanding of their call.” The person may or may or may not be called to ordained ministry. Regardless, the inquirer will have grown in call through this discernment and know that they have the “support of the body of Christ as they move forward.”

Spiritual Discernment in the Ordination Process – Frances Sullinger	After the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, its Canons on Ministry were revised to call for bishops and Commissions on Ministry to “provide encouragement, training, and resources to help every congregation to offer community discernment of call to ministry.” In response, Listening Hearts developed a training program for people to train and mentor a Parish Discernment Committee. The article describes the work of a PDC. It also discusses the early partnership between Listening Hearts and the Diocese of Virginia to train spiritually mature people to serve as Diocesan Spiritual Discernment Facilitators. Since then, Listening Hearts has adapted it training program to meet the needs of the Dioceses of New York, Central New York, Eastern Maryland, and San Diego.

posture – Mike Croghan	A poem on sitting “for the purpose of receptivity / for the purpose of listening / to the words / to the heart / of the universe.” After presenting options how best to sit, the poem concludes, “I try to sit like that / but it isn’t always easy.”

Volume 34, No. 1	Winter 2024

A Prayer of My Own – Joe Gill	The writer refashions the shorter version of the Our Father in the Gospel of Luke into his own prayer, describing the meaning, for him, of the hallowing of the name, the coming of the Kingdom, the receiving of the bread, the forgiving of the sins, and the leading not into temptation. Years later, in June 2022, Professor Nathan Schneider, in the magazine America, wrote an essay discussing variations of the prayer penned by other people throughout the ages, including Dante and Francis of Assisi. “Try it,” Schneider suggested. “Start with the old Our Father you know and change as many words as you can, keeping the meaning but speaking in your own voice. Allow yourself to speak to God with the many voices you have within you.”

Love my Enemies??? – Suzanne Farnham	Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” This is no easy task. It leads to a quest for empathy and peace. As Martin Luther King noted, profoundly, violence does not “solve any problems.” Yet agape love—which is quiet, calm, and comes from deep within—may lead to love of one’s enemies. A journey of love moves to, and through, the second verse of the hymn, “Seek Ye First,” bolstering the confidence that the Lord will “carry the day.” Here are the words: Ask, and it shall be given unto you; Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you; Al-le-le, al-le-lu-ia!”

Seeking My Enemies – Mike Croghan	Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” In a poem, the writer asks, “Who are my enemies?” His homeland has not been invaded, and he is not being oppressed. “Who are my enemies? / If I have to ask, then / my privilege is immense indeed.” The poem concludes, “May the Spirit be present / with each of us / and with each of our enemies / to comfort us / or to convict us / or both.”

Volume 34, No. 2	Spring 2024

Entering the Flow of the Spirit – The Rev. Susan Marie Smith	Not mentioning God’s name or talking about prayer seemed to the writer to be a social norm, almost as if God were a secret. “Everything changed,” though, after she experienced a peaceful calm in the midst of a traumatic incident. Asked, after it was over, how this happened, the writer credited the “Holy One.” Years later, she discovered her own ability to speak about God as she and two friends read aloud the appendix guidelines in Listening Hearts. Later still, and by then a priest, the writer and her parishioners attended a Listening Hearts training workshop, where they were able to “listen together for the Spirit, guided by the Holy One.” She opines, “I consider the Listening Hearts communal discernment process to be one of the best things going in the Episcopal Church.”

My Prayer – Patricia M.C. Brown	A meditation on Psalm 131: “Yahweh, my heart is not haughty, I do not set my sights too high . . . No, I hold myself in quiet and silence, like a little child in its mother’s arms . . ..” Psalm 131 became the writer’s prayer in her twenties. In her thirties, another prayer came her way, through the book Listening Hearts, which helped her to understand that her heart’s seeking “was a personal, intentional desire to talk to God, to hear God, to converse with God—and to respond to God.” Now in her sixties, “as if to come full circle,” the writer’s stepdaughter sent her a video version of Psalm 131, “out of the blue”—perhaps only to share “that she was then praying the prayer, with our eight-month-old granddaughter”: “…like a child in its mother’s arms, like a little child, so I keep myself.”

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