In this episode of the SoulStream: Living from the Heart podcast, Rod sits down with Suhail Stephen, spiritual director, pastor of West End Abbey in Winnipeg, and founder of the School of Mercy and Justice, for a conversation about what it means to be present to God and to others.
Suhail shares his origin story in spiritual direction: a “magnetic attraction” to something he couldn’t yet name, rooted in a deep desire to experience God and to accompany others in that same experience. He reflects on his first experiences of receiving spiritual direction, which felt like discovering a missing puzzle piece, a space to be listened to without an agenda, and how that experience changed him.
Suhail also comments on what makes listening such a profoundly loving act, why the gap between our theology and our lived experience of God is one of the most common places people get stuck, and how healing our image of God is often at the heart of spiritual transformation.
Suhail closes with a beautiful set of Lenten reflection questions for the community and a personal answer to what “living from the heart” means: keeping the love of God at the center, and living as authentically as possible from who God has made you to be.
Topics in this episode: spiritual direction, contemplative prayer, listening, discernment, charismatic and contemplative spirituality, image of God, Lent, embodiment, vocation
Links:
The last SoulStream Living from the Heart podcast on SoulStream: Walking the Stations: An Immersive Encounter Through Art and Faith
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