Holy Listening

I am interrupting my journey through Maximus to focus on a spiritual discipline that came up in my own prayer life. Please bare with me as I indulge in this departure from my normal pattern.

As I reflect on so many happenings directly in my life and indirectly tied to my life I keep coming back to a desert practice that maybe we need to restore. This past weekend we made great strides at convention and, yet, still have far to go with even small changes feeling like monumental lifts and disenfranchisement. I also received news via email about several employees from former staffs who all met an abrupt end to their ministry. Each of the official emails seem to point to great personal pain and disconnection that led to an abrupt change in the life of these individuals and the lives of the communities they served. It is within this context that the practice of Holy Listening emerged anew for me.

A Spiritual Compass

In this succinct yet profound declaration, Maximus the Confessor encapsulates the essence of the spiritual quest: "The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselessly." This statement delves into the nature of divine love and the innate human desire for understanding and communion.

The Bridge of Hope

Maximus the Confessor's observation that "Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things" is a profound meditation on the intrinsic nature of divine love and its role in our spiritual journey. At the core of this statement lies an understanding of love not merely as an emotion or sentiment but as an orientation and disposition of one’s entire being.

Fear of God

When I was starting out as a priest in the denomination, I grew up in I had rose colored glasses about the church and the people who participate in the church. I knew that God was alive in my denomination, and I also knew that the church was struggling to share the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. Many people were battening down the hatches and holding onto “tradition” which ended up wrecking many churches because there was something missing in their midst: Fear of God. I have watched my denomination and, ostensibly, the larger Christian movement limit the role of the awesome existence of God. We have almost forgotten our place in the creation and, in a way, turned ourselves into modern day pharisees and forgotten our own spiritual work.

Love at the Core

Maximus the Confessor's observation that "Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things" is a profound meditation on the intrinsic nature of divine love and its role in our spiritual journey. At the core of this statement lies an understanding of love not merely as an emotion or sentiment but as an orientation and disposition of one’s entire being.

© st. francis in-the-Field

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