Advent Longing and Prayerful Listening

Throughout the stories of spiritual formation ministries in A Quiet Pentecost, there is one common thread – cultivating the art of prayerful listening for divine guidance. As individuals learn to listen to scripture in new ways, messages are received that link direction from God to our human longings for a world of peace, justice, and hope.

Individuals learn to listen as they shift their prayer from a focus on their own human need to making time for God to speak, as well. This practice requires some time to cultivate. As we turn to the season of Advent, our invitation is to listen to our deepest inner longings for a world of love, peace, justice, and kindness; and to listen for how that human longing is met with divine inspiration. 

In A Quiet Pentecost, we discover individuals receiving a summons to new personal mission. Cindy Serio answers the call to be a loving presence for women in prison. Gene Turner found a mission trip to Liberia to be personally life-altering and life giving to two rural parishes in Illinois. Melanie Baffes created a year-long sharing time for high school women, because she noticed that in mixed setting, these young women did not speak up as much as the young men. Suzanne Clement created a mid-week vesper service, which sustained the congregation through a difficult time of transition. Over a few years time, the vision for a house ministry came into being in the heart of Cathy Brewton. With much diligence and community support, LifeHouse Ministries, Inc., has come into being as a place of refuge and hope in Ruston, Louisiana.

We are assured that God's guidance will give each of us the direction we need in our own life and current circumstances to claim our sense of mission and life purpose as we dwell into the Advent hope:

PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO ALL

LISTEN in this time of national and international unrest for the fresh summons of God’s gracious call upon your life.