Listening to the Holy Spirit

By Darleen Farland 

Associate Director,  
Office of Religious Education 

Recently I attended a retreat that was held for staff members of the parishes where I am a director of religious education. It was an opportunity to come together as we journey toward a more collaborative effort in the future. Father Richard F. Trainor, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Worcester, was a wonderful facilitator for our day. I came away with a greater appreciation for the importance of having a listening heart throughout my ministry. This also brought to mind a quote from one of my favorite children’s books, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  

So often catechetical leaders find themselves in the middle. They can be a wonderful “link in a chain,” or “bond of connection between persons,” as one of my favorite heavenly friends, St. John Henry Newman once prayed. Especially when they can “put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ” which according to Catechesi Tradendae, (On Catechesis in Our Time), an apostolic exhortation by St. John Paul II, is the definitive aim of catechesis.  

At other times they can find themselves in the middle of conflict and challenged to be instruments of God’s peace, and somehow facilitate greater harmony in that particular situation. 

Author Ann Garrido in her book, “Redeeming Conflict,” writes that “in times of conflict the capacity to listen is easily lost.” She shares a concept developed by Chris Agyris, a Harvard Business School professor, known as “the ladder of inference.” Ms. Garrido explains that “in times of conflict, our conversations tend to start at the top of the ladder. We stand on the highest rungs trading our conclusions and beliefs…. The most effective thing we can do is move backward down the ladder and be curious about what’s happening at each other’s lower rungs…. We can neither control nor change how anyone else sees the world. Nor do we have the power to make our way of seeing the world understood by others. The only power we really possess – a power that, since Pentecost, has never been taken from us and always awaits our engagement – is the power to listen and understand.”  

(Our diocese is blessed to have Ann Garrido with us on Nov. 12. She will share additional wisdom on this topic when she speaks at a day of enrichment for Catholic school teachers and parish catechetical leaders which is sponsored by our diocesan Office of Religious Education.) 

Maybe it is not coincidental at this time that Pope Francis is calling for the 16th Synod of Bishops. Listening is such a critical element in the synodic model that Pope Francis espouses. In coming together to listen and discuss, we are better able to hear and discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church. “The Synod then offers us the opportunity to become a listening Church, to break out of our routine and pause from our pastoral concerns in order to stop and listen,” Pope Francis said in his address for the opening of the Synod on Oct. 9, published on the Vatican website, vatican.va.  

Wisdom for our journey as catechetical leaders comes from various and sundry places. May our ears always be open to the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us on the journey ahead. 

“Speak Lord, your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10). 

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