Listen with the Ear of Your Heart

The phrase “listen with the ear of your heart” comes to us from St. Benedict and the Rule that he developed for his monks. He begins the prologue this way,

“Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

Summarizing Jane Tomaine, author of St. Benedict’s Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living, the divine is before us and within us waiting to be seen. Our challenge is that our busy lives leave us hurrying from task to task. Is it possible to do our work and connect to our heart, mind, and awareness of eternal transcendence? Is it possible to allow ordinary, every-day tasks to reveal to us the divine?

Yes! It is possible

Today, I am offering to you a journey with the idea of listening with the ear of the heart and apply it to an adaptation of lectio divina. Lectio divina is a way of reading that is sacred. It involves four movements. (1) lectio (read), (2) meditation (meditate), (3) oratio (pray), and (4) contemplation (contemplate). However, I am offering a practice with music.  Audio divina, if you will.

This is a piece of music called “Shadows” from the “Diaspora” album by Ibrahim Maalouf. Ibrahim Maalouf is a trumpet player and teacher, composer and arranger. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and now lives in Paris, France. His style is uniquely his own. A blend of Arabic tonality and jazz.

The complete movement of audio divina should take approximately 30 minutes to an hour. Feel free to adapt the practice to suit your busy lifestyle (allow the ordinary to be infused with the extraordinary!)

Audio

Please listen.

Now, take a moment to pause. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. (allow time for the music to echo within you)

What is echoing?

Meditatio

Please play the video again.

Again, take a moment to pause. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. (allow time for the music to begin resonating within you)

What part is pulling you? What part is pushing you? Is there a particular movement or instrument that is creating energy within?

Oratio

Please play the video again.

Again, take a moment to pause. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. (allow time for the music to begin pulling you)

Often, prayer is about opening up to possibilities. Do you hear new possibilities? Is there an invitation? Is the energy beginning to coalesce?

Contemplatio

Please play the video again.

Again, take a moment to pause. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. (allow time for the music to energize you)

Contemplation should lead to action. You have heard the music, entered it’s space, begun to feel it’s pull, now, where is that pull leading you? What is your response?

Shalom,

Terri

© 2013, post and photographs, Terri Stewart, All rights reserved

TERRI STEWART is Into the Bardo’s ne Sunday evening chaplain. You can expect a special post from her each week. She comes from an eclectic background and considers herself to be grounded in contemplation and justice. She is the Director and Founder of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition that serves youth affected by the justice system. As a recent graduate of Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, she earned her Master’s of Divinity and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Spiritual Direction with honors and is a rare United Methodist student in the Jesuit Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Nu. She is a contributing author to the Abingdon Worship Annual.