Reply To: Vulnerable Listening

[Sharon Stover]

You’ve posed interesting questions. I look forward to reading others’ take as well. For me, vulnerable listening will require me to be open, logically and emotionally, to whatever the Directee shares with the full acceptance that it isn’t me who will lead her, teach her, fix her. The Holy Spirit is the healer and will guide me and her as He wills. Being aware of my limitations, while not placing limitations on the Directee, thus helping her to be vulnerable, will help me to remain present and to “stay in my lane” as management experts used to say.
I imagine there will be times when this awareness and acceptance will mean that a recommendation to a priest or mental health counselor will be appropriate.
I think one of the risks of vulnerable listening may be that we, by being vulnerable and encouraging vulnerability, will hear something that is uncomfortable for us. Our work might be to simply unconditionally love the Directee through their sharing.
Father Hicks wrote in his book “[w]hen vulnerability is met with unconditional love, it is an experience of mercy.”
A daunting task but one for which the Lord will equip me, I pray!