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Pastoral listening

Six sheets to learn to listen — because to listen is already to love. Organised around three verbs: Train, Understand, Serve.

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The foundation

The listener's posture

Before any technique: to listen is already to love. The disposition of the heart that precedes speech, advice, prayer.

Train

The theology of listening

Our God listens first. The Shema, the verb shama, sin as deafness: why listening is a spiritual act.

Understand

Reading the one you listen to

Falling silent within, hearing what is said and what is left unsaid, discerning the true request before answering.

Understand

Recognising your own posture

The three false postures — the Judge, the Adviser, the Spiritualiser — and the reflexes that, within us, kill listening.

Serve

Listening, concretely

Present, empathetic, intercessor, sent: the four right postures, and the model of Christ on the road to Emmaus.

The long haul

The listener over time

Carrying the words of others wears you down. Spot the signs, set a frame, lay it before God, be heard. For you.

Practise : the listening simulatorEight people confide in you. Each time, choose your posture, and see what it opens… or closes. Listening is a gesture: it takes practice.▶ Play
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