Let Your Heart Be Broken - Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of ...

page 2JourneyFall 2008Listeningby Sr. Mary Persico, IHMThe Problem and Power of ListeningWhen Simone Campbell,SSS, while speaking toa group of IHM Sisters,challenged us to “let your heart bebroken,” the words touched our collectivespirit with an ironic knowingthat the only way to understand theheart of another is to feel the depth ofthat person’s pain. And yet we spendour lives shielding ourselves fromhurts, avoiding difficult situations,and praying that we will not personallybe visited by sorrows and misfortune.Throughout this issue of Journey,the writers will share their storiesand reflections about this commonparadox we experience as human beingslonging to connect to one anotherand to our God. I have chosen as myparticular focus in this introductorypiece the importance of listening, thesimple yet eminently difficult act ofhuman kindness. Listening!If ever you have participated inthe evaluation of a particular groupto which you belong, chances are thatone assessment of the group’s inabilityto function at its peak or to be mosteffective in its mission is the ubiquitousconclusion expressed in thephrase “lack of communication.” Thisevaluation propels the group’s leadershipto make more sincere efforts atsending memos, convening meetings,or making information available. Themembers too step up their attempts atbeing on time for meetings or activities,and participating more efficientlyin the duties required of them. Laterevaluations reveal that the solutionswere only moderately successful anddid not address the underlying complaint.This is a simple and concreteexample of a fundamental reality. Thehuman translation of the technicalterm “lack of communication” is “Iwant you to listen to me.”In her book, Finding Our Way:Leadership for an Uncertain Time,Margaret Wheatley tells this littlestory: “A young black South Africanwoman taught some of my friends aprofound lesson about listening. Shewas sitting in a circle of women frommany nations, and each woman hadthe chance to tell a story from herlife. When her turn came, she beganquietly to tell a story of true horror– of how she had found her grandparentsslaughtered in their village.Many of the women were Westerners,and in the presence of such pain, theyinstinctively wanted to do something.They wanted to fix, to make it better,anything to remove the pain of thistragedy from such a young life. Theyoung woman felt their compassionbut also felt them closing in. She puther hands up, as if to push back theirdesire to help. She said, ‘I don’t needyou to fix me. I just need you to listento me.’”When Simone Campbell addressedthe IHM Sisters and encouragedus to let our hearts be broken,she had been recounting stories ofimmigrant persons and the plightthat brings them into our country andmore importantly into our lives. Itis in the listening to stories of oppressionand abject poverty that thenameless faces of people becomeflesh and blood human beings wholove their families as we do ours andlong for the freedoms we enjoy asunconsciously as the air we breathe.Our listening to their stories hasprompted us as a congregation ofwomen who hold justice as one of ourfive most cherished values to supportwholeheartedly the Catholic Bishops’stance on immigration reform in U.S.legislation and in our hearts. Unlesswe stop to listen to our immigrantneighbors, we cannot know theirstories, their loves, their longings, andthe common human bonds that bindus together.Perhaps our sense of listening isdulled by the cacophony of soundsall around us every day. Bombardedby media that is often violent andpenetrating and by entertainment thatis earsplitting and raucous, we’vegrown accustomed to the noise andhave forgotten how to discriminatebetween the sounds that need to befiltered out and those that need ourattentive listening. The human voicethat speaks the feelings of the humanheart is crying out to be heard.As Christians, disciples of Jesus, andgood people of other faith traditions,we must listen to those around us, tothe people of a boundary-less worldwho want to be heard, and to our ownhearts made in the image of God. Inthe story of Exodus recounted in theHebrew Bible, God speaks to Mosesand says: I have seen the miseryof my people who are in Egypt. Ihave heard their cry because of theirtaskmasters. I have felt what theyare suffering; therefore, I have comedown to deliver them. There is a logicalprogression in this straightforwardlesson. The heart of God is revealedin four verbs – seeing, hearing, feeling,and saving. How often do westop this progression in our own livesafter merely seeing the distresses ofpeople near us and far beyond? Wecan’t bear to learn more; it’s too painfuland our hearts might be broken.But God’s lesson to Moses is simple.It is when we listen and truly hearthe stories of those who need us thatwe can feel their pain and be movedto change the structures that stand inthe way of God’s dream for all peopleand all creation. It is when we listenThe only wayto understandthe heart ofanother is tofeel the depthof that person’spain.and truly hear the stories of thosearound us that our hearts will be brokenenough to love more deeply andlive more compassionately. It is whenwe listen and truly hear the stories ofothers that God speaks to our heartsand we find the peace that rests inGod alone. Let us listen long enoughfor our hearts to be broken and lovewill be born anew every day.Wheatley, M. (2004). Finding ourWay: Leadership for Uncertain Times.Berrett-Koehler Publishers: SanFrancisco.Sr. Mary Persico is the presidentof the Congregation of the Sisters,Servants of the Immaculate Heart ofMary, Scranton, Pennsylvania.Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Vol. 26, No. 1 Fall 2008Our mission as Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Scranton,Pennsylvania, is to follow Jesus as a community of disciples, aware that we are sentto be a clear and understandable prophetic witness to the presence of God in theworld. - from the IHM Mission StatementEditor: Sr. Fran Fasolka, IHM Copyeditor: Sr. Kathleen McNulty, IHMAdvisory Board:Sr. Gilmary Beagle, IHMSr. Benedicta Berendes, IHMSr. Suzanne Delaney, IHMSr. Ann Barbara DeSiano, IHMSr. Lillian Marie Farrell, IHMSr. Maryalice Jacquinot, IHMSr. Lisa PerkowskiSr. Amy Zychal, IHMProofreaders: Sr. M. St. Anthony Radzikowski, IHM and Sr. Carrie Flood, IHMCover: Sr. Donna Korba, IHMJourney is published by the IHM Congregation for its members as well as its friends, donors, sponsoredinstitutions and supporters of the IHM Sisters and their ministries. Opinions expressed by authorspublished in Journey do not necessarily reflect those of the IHM Congregation. Correspondenceshould be addressed to the editor at: IHM Center, 2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509e-mail: communications@sistersofihm.org