Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

This morning in our reading from Ecclesiasticus there is a phrase that caught my attention:

6 Unless they are sent by intervention from the Most High,
   pay no attention to them.
7 For dreams have deceived many,
   and those who put their hope in them have perished.
8 Without such deceptions the law will be fulfilled,
   and wisdom is complete in the mouth of the faithful.

It reminded me of a few times when people have asked me - how do I know it’s the Holy Spirit nudging me, and not just my ego, or something worse? From there we tend to talk a little bit about discernment - a gift of the Holy Spirit that we learn in community. There are some resources that I have found helpful over the years in groups and with individuals that come from the Listening Hearts, a ministry rooted in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. They publish a book about group discernment of the same name, and offer trainings and tools for discernment for individuals and groups. I have held onto a bookmark about discernment from their office for a long time, it names practices like: take time to become settled in God’s presence, listen to others with your entire self (sense, feelings, intuition, imagination, and rational faculties), do not interrupt, do not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking, avoid the hypothetical and broad generalizations, listen to the group as a whole-to those who have not spoken aloud as well as to those who have, hold your desires and opinions-even your convictions-lightly, leave space for anyone who may want to speak a first time before speaking a second time yourself, pause between speakers to absorb what has been said.

The goal of Spiritual Discernment is to receive God’s guidance, and that doesn’t just take place in discernment meetings. In other settings I find that these practices form the kinds of conversations that leave room for the Holy Spirit to move a group, to clarify a challenge, to imagine the way forward and the energy to plan for it.

Borrowing from resources like Listening Hearts, whose work is informed by Scripture, community practice, and wisdom of the faith, I think we can grow in wisdom and discernment, learning to look for and follow the Holy Spirit. When we miss the mark, we'll have listening hearts alongside us to try again, too.

In Christ,

Mtr Taylor