Sacred Listening


Book Description

A profound call to Christian discipleship. An intensive course in Christian faith. A creative freedom to serve God that is deeply grounded in Scripture. These are ways to describe Sacred Listening, James L. Wakefield's adaptation of the classic Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Central to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Spiritual Exercises is a manual used to direct a month-long spiritual retreat. Now adapting these time-honored Exercises specifically for Protestant Christians, James L. Wakefield encourages readers to integrate their secular goals with their religious beliefs and helps them reflect on the life of Jesus as a model for their own discipleship. Combining scholarship with classic forms of spirituality, Sacred Listening will interest church leaders and lay Christians who want to deepen their faith.




The Sacred Art of Listening


Book Description

Hearing and listening are two different things. Learning to listen--really listen--requires sacred practice. The Sacred Art of Listening guides you through forty practices of deep listening--to our Source, to ourselves, and to each other. Inspiring text and contemplative artwork combine to communicate the three essential qualities of deep listening--silence, reflection and presence. They demonstrate that the key to healthy relationships and spiritual transformation can be as basic as practicing the art of listening. You will learn how to: Speak clearly from the heart Communicate with courage and compassion Heighten your awareness and sensitivity to opportunities for deep listening Enhance your ability to listen to people with different belief systems




Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening


Book Description

Poor listening leads to misunderstandings and lost opportunities. Learning to listen well requires spiritual practice. It happens at work and at home, with strangers and close friends, in heated debates and in quiet conversations--you hear someone speaking, but often you don't truly listen. Kay Lindahl's highly respected workshops are attended by people from a broad range of backgrounds. Her first book, The Sacred Art of Listening, has been published to acclaim in North America, Europe and Asia. Now she offers practical, easy-to-follow advice and exercises to enhance your capacity to listen in a spirit-filled way. Using examples from her own life and her work as a teacher of the sacred art of listening, Lindahl explores the nature and use of silence, reflection and divine presence as foundational qualities of listening and shows you how you can apply these in your everyday life. This valuable workshop-in-a-book examines the varied ways we are called to deep listening, including: Contemplative listening Reflective listening Heart listening Listening in groups Listening in conversations ... and more You will find yourself inspired to discover how different your conversations will be when you stop just talking and start really listening.




Holy Listening


Book Description

Describes the role and practice of a spiritual director as distinct from pastoral care and from psychotherapy. Compares the spiritual director to a midwife for the soul, describing actions of teaching prayer and offering exercise suggestions.




Sacred Listening


Book Description

“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you-all the expectations, all the beliefs-and becoming who you are.” —Rachael Naomi Remen “There is no need to go to India or anyplace else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your own room, your garden and even your bathtub.” —Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Sacred Listening is a six-week spiritual adventure designed to awaken each of us to our true, authentic being. We are encouraged to stand still, breathe deeply, and learn to listen to the language of our life. As you turn each page and engage in the experience, you will discover the sacred gift of listening and awaken to the life that longs to live in, with, and through you. The journal prompts, experiential exercises, and holy listening are guides to open you to healing, wellness, and wholeness.




Seven Thousand Ways to Listen


Book Description

In Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, Nepo offers ancient and contemporary practices to help us stay close to what is sacred. In this beautifully written spiritual memoir, Nepo explores the transformational journey with his characteristic insight and grace. He unfolds the many gifts and challenges of deep listening as we are asked to reflect on the life we are given. A moving exploration of self and our relationship to others and the world around us, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen unpacks the many ways we are called to redefine ourselves and to name what is meaningful, as we move through the changes that come from experience and ageing and the challenge of surviving loss. Filled with questions to reflect on and discuss with others, and meditations on how to return to what matters throughout the day, this enlightening book teaches us how to act wholeheartedly so we can inhabit the gifts we are born with and find the language of our own wisdom. Seven Thousand Ways to Listen weaves a tapestry of deep reflection, memoir and meditation to create a remarkable guide on how to listen to life and live more fully.




Still Listening


Book Description

Cutting-edge essays, written by seasoned spiritual directors, which examine a variety of new frontiers in spiritual direction in the 21st century.




Sacred Instructions


Book Description

A “profound and inspiring” collection of ancient indigenous wisdom for “anyone wanting the healing of self, society, and of our shared planet” (Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma). A Penobscot Indian draws on the experiences and wisdom of the First Nations to address environmental justice, water protection, generational trauma, and more. Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, Sherri Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day—including indigenous land rights, environmental justice, and our collective human survival. Sharing the gifts she has received from the elders of her tribe, the Penobscot Nation, she asks us to look deeply into the illusions we have labeled as truth and which separate us from our higher mind and from one another. Sacred Instructions explains how our traditional stories set the framework for our belief systems and urges us to decolonize our language and our stories. It reveals how the removal of women from our stories has impacted our thinking and disrupted the natural balance within our communities. For all those who seek to create change, this book lays out an ancient world view and set of cultural values that provide a way of life that is balanced and humane, that can heal Mother Earth, and that will preserve our communities for future generations.




Listening to Your Life


Book Description

Daily meditations taken from the works of an acclaimed novelist, essayist, and preacher who has articulated what he sees with a freshness and clarity and energy that hails our stultified imaginations.




Holy Listening with Breath, Body, and the Spirit


Book Description

Many of us long to hear God’s voice, yet we often overlook the great wisdom God gave us in our bodies. There is a deep connection between our bodies and spirits. What might happen if we listened more deeply to the wisdom of our bodies? How might listening with our whole selves change the way we listen to God? A stroke at age 31 forced Whitney Simpson to slow down and listen more deeply to her body. In the process she discovered how to listen more deeply to God. During her journey of healing and wholeness, Whitney explored ancient practices that she found helpful in connecting her body and spirit, including: lectio divina (meditative reading of scripture) yoga breath prayer aromatherapy Listening to God with the entire body, not simply with our ears, may seem like a strange concept. Yet God created the body and the breath as gifts for us to explore. Most important, we don’t have to experience a crisis to learn to listen to God’s activity in and around us. Each of us can slow down and listen for God just as we are—in breath, body, and spirit. This 40-day guide to holy listening offers daily meditations that can be completed in as little as 30 minutes. Each meditation includes scripture, yoga postures, a breath prayer, suggested essential oils, and reflection questions. The book provides descriptions and simple illustrations of yoga poses and suggests seated poses as modifications for all poses, making it accessible to both experienced yoga practitioners and those new to yoga. Allow this book to invite you on a journey of holy listening as you explore ancient tools and new ways of experiencing the presence of God.