The Goal of Spiritual Discernment is to receive God’s Guidance
- Take time to become settled in God’s presence.
- Listen to others with your entire self (senses, feelings, intuition, imagination, and rational faculties).
- Do not interrupt.
- Pause between speakers to absorb what has been said.
- Do not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking.
- Speak for yourself only, expressing your own thoughts and feelings, referring to your own experiences. Avoid being hypothetical. Steer away from broad generalizations.
- Do not challenge what others say.
- Listen to the group as a whole-to those who have not spoken aloud as well as to those who have.
- Generally leave space for anyone who may want to speak a first time before speaking a second time yourself.
- Hold your desires and opinions — even your convictions — lightly.
~ From Grounded in God, Revised Edition (Farnham, Hull, and McLean, Morehouse Publishing)
Download the Discernment Listening Guidelines