A quest narrative is one of the oldest ways to tell a story. The Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the Odyssey, or the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable; all of these are quest narratives.

This kind of listening is a challenge, but it is also an amazing gift that we can offer to others, to the world, and to ourselves. Since it can be a challenge to listen to someone who is so different from us, here are some simple ways to do listening as a spiritual practice.

Listening is related to hearing, one of the five senses.  We are creatures that hear, and this hearing serves many purposes. But as a spiritual practice, listening goes far beyond hearing.

Here are my thoughts and feelings, my experience of using Ignatian contemplation with this story.

When we consider ways that imagination can be a spiritual practice, the children in our lives may be the best teachers. Imaginative play is what we call the play of children.

Imagination is the ability to form mental images of things that are not present to the senses or not considered to be real. The imagination is something that is so much a part of us that we do not realize just how amazing it is.

My desire in these reflections on hope is to move hope beyond some inspirational ideas that we bring to mind from time-to-time, and then let go of as we go on with life. Are there ways at any given moment, even in the face of a world that seems to be void of any promise and meaning, that hope can invite us to commit to actions that give expression to it in the world?

We may start with the definition of hope as ‘expectant desire.’ There are events we expect, but do not desire. There are things we desire, but never expect.

The biblical story is filled with images that share God’s vision, God’s yearning and desire for the world that God has created.

Thinking about the relationship between past, present and future helps me understand hope as a spiritual practice.