2021-09-16 SPAIN

Listen to: Marist European Network’ slogan for the academic year 21-22

Each academic year, the Marist European Network proposes a common theme for pastoral ministry in schools. For the academic year 21-22 the slogan is “Listen to”. We receive this motto as an invitation to transform ourselves and to be transformed by listening. Listening and listening to each other, an art to be practised.  Giving value to listening will mean, among other things, encouraging welcoming, quality time, full attention, otherness, practising active listening, attending to our inner self, … Listening as an attitude of life, putting it into practice in our daily life, in our personal encounter with others, in caring for the natural environment, in prayer, … Listening by activating all our senses, opening our heart so as not to remain still or indifferent and responding without fear, assertively to the calls we receive.

With the conviction that we all have the capacity to listen, that this listening is important so that presence, family spirit, accompaniment and community life are meaningful and authentic, we set out to continue learning to be leaders in listening. Practising and exercising listening will require preparation, availability, willingness, time, intention, calm, serenity. It is up to each one of us to know how to dedicate quality time to listening, avoiding the activism that makes this practice difficult. It is also up to each one of us to cultivate our interiority. Let us prepare space for listening to the Word, for personal prayer, for prayer with the community, for silence. Let us dive fearlessly into our inner selves and welcome what we hear there as an opportunity to understand, meditate, grow and converse with the God of Life. Exercising listening in the fraternity, in the group, in the community will bring value to our relationships, trust, fraternal dialogue will add value to our encounters.

The readings, the music, the experiences suggested by the European Network in the materials it has produced will help us to exercise ourselves personally or in a group. For each month, a sub-theme will bring us closer to listening by paying attention to the least nuance.

Listening. A challenge, an opportunity, go ahead! 

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Marta Portas, L’Hermitage – Coordinator of the European Laity Team
Sharing 5 – Newsletter laity

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