Discerning for Listening Hearts

The Listening Hearts Ministry supports those who are seeking to understand what they are called to do when faced with decisions or challenges. This program relies on trained, supportive friends and colleagues and parishioners who can help the seeker find their way.

Are you being called to use your time and talents as a discerner in the Listening Hearts Ministry?

Discerners are trained in a multi-session intensive course of spiritual formation and spiritual discernment; and practicum sessions to prepare to gather as a group of Listening Hearts discerners for members of the congregation. Carefully designed sessions give special emphasis to issues of call, discernment, and community that form the basis of the Listening Hearts Ministries discernment model. Participants gain clear understandings of how discernment can be incorporated into their personal lives and the life of the congregation by practicing prayerful listening, imaginative engagement with Scripture, and guidance to be more attuned to signs of the Spirit.

The workshops are beneficial to those wanting only to gain basic knowledge of discernment concepts, and for those seriously interested to incorporate spiritual discernment into the everyday lives of their spiritual journey; and to become Listening Hearts discerners.

The training program agenda includes a variety of activities that engage participants directly in the learning process. Several broad themes are introduced and covered at varying depths. Short presentations on various aspects of discernment form the foundation of the program, and meditative exercises are incorporated for first-hand experience of the concepts. Selections of hymns and prayers complement the session(s); and opportunities for participants to share their reflections with others help to round out the workshop. To build a theological and Scriptural foundation, participants are asked to read the following book in preparation for training.

Likewise, this book is very supportive to individuals or groups beginning the spiritual discernment process:Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community - Farnham, Gill, McLean, and Ward
Other helpful Listening Hearts book titles are available for check-out from: Canon Verger, Brooks Mason - masonb@stpaulcathedral.org; 619-298-7261 x325

The national Listening Hearts Ministries Website offers a wide array of programs and resources that give participants a foundation for leading discernment educational programs, book discussions, and retreats for members of their congregation . All discernment is designed to help both individuals and members of a group to recognize and respond to God's call for particular needs or specific circumstances. Discernment Program Areas Include:  Discernment for Ministry; Spiritual Discernment; Training Program for Trainers; Consensus Building and Decision-Making; Spiritual Conflict Resolution; Search Committees; Church Mission Statements; Clergy Programs; Custom Programs
 
 
For Individual or Group Discernment Contact: Susan Ward at 619.437.7287 or susanward961@sbcglobal.net  

For Upcoming Discerner Training Workshops Contact:  Terry Kelly, 619 299 9808; terrence.kelly@cox.net ; Caroline Morse, 619 233 3747; chmorse1@cox.net                
 
“Pay attention, come to me; listen and your soul will live.” – Isa 55.3 JB

Do you need a Listening Heart?

Are you facing a difficult decision, or feel you are at a crossroad in life? Perhaps the Listening Hearts Ministry may be of help to you.

Welcome to the Listening Hearts Ministry – “a community of prayerful people trained to be present with others at such spiritual crossroads in our lives. Anyone may ask to meet with a Listening Hearts group to gather in prayer concerning this moment when you are seeking God’s guidance, God’s presence, God’s will.” ¹

Listening Hearts Ministry “holds a vision of the church as a community of faith, eager for God’s guidance, alert to signs of the Spirit and alive with the prayer of deep listening.” ²

Seeking to make discernment a common spiritual practice at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the ministry helps individuals and groups hear and respond to God’s call in their lives by providing trained discernment groups who pray, meditate and listen with them.

Persons seeking the guidance of God within a Christian community, and who want to try to resolve issues that have arisen in their lives, may contact:Susan Ward at 619.437.7287 or susanward961@sbcglobal.net. Susan will introduce the spiritual discernment process and provide an overview of how discernment may benefit. A spiritual discernment session will be scheduled.

The Listening Hearts Experience – “is typically a one time meeting of about three hours. The person or group seeking the session is asked to write a brief description about the question they are seeking discernment of God’s will. This is shared with the team of three people before the session so all might be in prayer about the issue even before the session takes place.

Those requesting a session are asked to read Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community and groups also read Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations. During the session, all will sit in silent prayer and team members will ask questions as they feel moved to do so by the Spirit - questions that contribute to a gradual process of spiritual clarification and discernment. The person or group seeking the session may ask for a follow up session if they feel the need for further discernment.”¹


 . . . . . turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul – Deut. 30:10


1. Monday, 31 December 2007; http://www.indydio.org/diocese/
2. Excerpt from: Listening Hearts Mission Statement
Compiled and Adapted from: http://www.listeninghearts.org/programs_LH.htm and

Listening Hearts: What is God calling you to do?

Are you struggling with a decision and you can’t seem to figure it out on your own?

If you have an issue or question and seek to understand in which direction God may be calling you, the Listening Hearts ministry can help you. The sessions, which are strictly confidential, are conducted in a gentle and prayerful setting facilitated by trained discerners. The process is grace filled and Spirit led.

Call or email Sue Ward, St. Paul’s Listening Hearts Ministry Contact, to discuss a discernment session: susanward961@sbcglobal.net, 619 437 7287 or cell 619 742 6540.

Also, see what Sue Ward and Caroline Morse told us about the ministry and their own discernment in this previous blogpost!

Listening Hearts

Sue Ward writes: You may not be familiar with a very special, somewhat quiet ministry at St. Paul’s called Listening Hearts. Listening Hearts helps us face questions, problems or decisions that defy our usual abilities to reason, sift, assess and cope. We all want to be guided by God in making life’s difficult decisions, but left to our own devices, we can end up hearing every voice but God’s; voices of culture, peer pressure, ambition, ego, and so on. Listening Hearts is a chance to settle down and quiet that noise through a process of discernment.

Discernment is the gift God gives us to sort through the various voices to identify that which comes from God. The Listening Hearts approach to discernment is rooted in the idea that we stand a better chance of hearing the Spirit if we listen quietly, in prayer, and together. Years ago I was trained as a Listening Hearts discerner. It made a huge difference in my life by making me realize I could get and give help to others as we struggle together to seek God’s guidance in our lives.

We started the Listening Hearts Ministry here at St Paul’s about 5 years ago and several people have taken the opportunity to ask for discernment. Some comments like “It was one of the most loving, caring, encouraging group experiences I’ve ever had” and “Because of the Listening Hearts experience, I was no longer stuck in self-doubt or uncertainty” and another “Thank you again for this opportunity – what a gift!” I encourage anyone who is struggling with issues in his or her life look into a Listening Hearts discernment session.

What’s it like? Caroline Morse shares some of her thoughts as she went through Listening Hearts several years ago while she was training to be a discerner, and wrote a journal:

November 2005 – My own Discernment. I discovered that as part of my training to become a Listening Hearts discerner, I had to experience Discernment of my own, I had to become the Focus person, write up an issue of my own and receive discernment on it.

I wasn't so sure how I felt about this. On the one hand, I looked forward to it and thought it might be interesting and helpful On the other hand, I was nervous ahead of time, uncomfortable about the idea of exposing my inner self, being vulnerable with three discerners. There was the possibility one of the discerners might impose their own agenda on me. I didn't know how comfortable I was about revealing my inner issues, fears and doubts to three "strangers", even though I knew them and had been hanging out with them for a few days. And of course, they would always know this "inner stuff” of mine. Would they judge me?

But I experienced the Discernment as a very gentle and loving process. The listening and questioning was kind and prayerful. Slowly, gently I became clearer and surer about the direction in my life I was considering. It seemed as if this was really just fine with God. No one imposed their own issues and judgments on me. I sensed the kind and caring qualities of the Discerners. None of the things that I had feared took place. I felt very close to the three people who had so deeply concerned themselves with my issues. And it was a relief to have more clarity in my direction.

December 2009 – as I think back today on that Discernment of my own issue, what I learned is still with me and is a source of comfort. What I experienced in 2005 is still valid four years later.

I am grateful for Listening Hearts in my life. It has taught me to be a better listener, to be still enough to sense the movement of the Holy Spirit in both my own and other’s lives. It’s a process which opens people to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives through prayerful listening and questioning. People have all kind of issues that they can receive help with: personal, career, time and energy, ethical dilemmas. How are they experiencing God’s call? What I like about it is that Listening Hearts doesn’t tell people what to do. Through prayerful listening and questioning, it helps them find their own way with the help of the Holy Spirit.

If you’d like to know more, or would like to schedule a session please contact Susan Ward at susanward961@sbcglobal.net