Daily Meditation: Listening as Spiritual Hospitality

DAILY MEDITATION Listening as Spiritual Hospitality March 11 Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you. For further reflection... "When Job's three friends heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.  Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was." - Job 2: 11, 13 (NIV) Your response... Have you ever considered the powerful effect your listening can have on others? Comment on this Daily Meditation. Continue the Inspiration Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Ministry and Spirituality".   Visit our Bookstore: United States | Canada | United Kingdom Search the Daily Meditations... You can now search Henri's Daily Meditations by theme. Learn more here... Consider our monthly giving program to sustain the ability to extend Henri's legacy and make his work available to those who seek spiritual formation and nourishment. Click here to sign up today. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Scripture chosen by L. Yeskoo. STAY CONNECTED:

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