Love as the Listening Way
by Jasmine Bellamy
Stillpoint Executive Director
There is a line from Paul Tillich that has been accompanying me in this season: the first duty of love is to listen.
It feels like the truest way to begin.
As I step into my role as Executive Director of Stillpoint, I am not arriving with answers. I am arriving as a listener. A listener to Spirit, to this community, to the stories that have shaped Stillpoint over more than four decades, and to what is quietly emerging among us now.
My life as a contemplative has taught me to see the world through the lens of love. Not as sentiment, but as a disciplined, discerning, embodied way of being. Love, for me, is a practice. It is my plumb line.
I am a mystic in the most ordinary sense. I experience Divine presence in the sunrise and sunset, in birdsong, in the rhythm of breath, in the hush of early morning stillness. I have come to trust that God is not distant, but intimately woven into the fabric of our lives, always speaking, always inviting, always present.
And yet, to hear requires listening.
Formed by Listening
My work as a spiritual director, contemplative preacher, and leader has been shaped by one central commitment: to listen deeply enough that what is most true can emerge.
This kind of listening is not passive. It is not waiting for one’s turn to speak. It is an active, attentive, embodied presence that makes space for another’s experience without trying to control or resolve it.
In spiritual direction, I am not the expert in someone else’s life. I am a companion. I listen for what is said and unsaid. I listen for longing, for resistance, for joy, for grief. I listen for the movement of Spirit.
Over time, I have come to understand that deep listening is itself a form of love.
It is how we honor the dignity of another person.
It is how we resist the impulse to fix or manage.
It is how we begin to heal the ruptures between us.
Practices That Shape My Listening
My listening is sustained by practice.
Again and again, I return to simple, grounding rhythms:
Centering Prayer, where I release the need to grasp or control and rest in God’s presence
Silence and solitude, where I allow the noise within and around me to settle
Lectio Amoris, a practice of reading Scripture through the lens of Love
Walking and pilgrimage, where the body becomes a partner in prayer
Journaling, where what is hidden can find language
These practices do not make me a better listener in a performative sense. They make me a more available one.
They teach me to slow down.
To notice.
To trust that what is unfolding does not need to be rushed.
Listening for the Sound of the Genuine
This April, I look forward to facilitating Discovering the Sound of the Genuine: A Retreat Inspired by Howard Thurman at Trinity Retreat Center in West Cornwall, New York.
In what I consider to be Thurman’s farewell address, he invites us to become still enough to hear the sound of the genuine within ourselves and within one another. His words point to a deeper truth, that beneath the noise, beneath the expectations and distortions, there is something within each of us that is true, steady, and alive.
His wisdom has been guiding me in these dark and tender times.
If you feel drawn, I invite you to listen.
What do you notice?
What arises within you as you hear his invitation?
Listening as Leadership
Over the last three decades, my work has extended into the marketplace, where I have served as an executive leader and organizational guide. While the context may differ, the core practice remains the same.
Whether I am sitting with a directee, facilitating a retreat, or leading within an organization, I am listening.
Listening for what is being named.
Listening for what is being avoided.
Listening for what is ready to emerge.
I have seen how deep listening can transform not only individuals, but communities and systems. When people feel truly heard, something shifts. Defensiveness softens. Creativity opens. Trust begins to grow.
This is what I mean when I speak of transformation from the inside out.
A Season of Emergence
My word for this year is emergence.
It follows a season of wintering, of hidden formation, of quiet becoming. And now, as spring unfolds, I find myself paying attention to what is gently rising to the surface.
Emergence is not forced. It cannot be manufactured. It requires patience, trust, and the willingness to remain present to what is not yet fully clear.
This is the posture I bring to Stillpoint.
Together, we are entering a new chapter. One that will require us to listen deeply to one another, to the Spirit, and to the needs of a changing world.
An Invitation
If there is an invitation I would offer, it is this:
What might become possible if you listened more deeply to your own life, to God, and to others?
Not to respond.
Not to fix.
But simply to receive.
You might begin with a simple practice.
Set aside a few minutes each day.
Sit in stillness.
Notice your breath.
And gently ask, what is calling for my attention today?
Then listen.
Trust what arises, even if it is quiet.
I am grateful to walk alongside you in this community as a listener, a companion, and a fellow pilgrim.
With love as our guide, I look forward to what will emerge.
Be well. Be Love.
Jasmine
Jasmine Bellamy is the Executive Director of Stillpoint: The Center for Christian Spirituality and the founder of Love 101 Ministries and The LOVING Leader. A spiritual director and contemplative preacher, she is a doctoral candidate at Fuller Seminary, where her research centers on how love forms the inner life of leadership. She is a graduate of Stillpoint’s BIPOC Spiritual Journey Program and received her Certificate in Spiritual Direction through Liberated Together. Through her work, Jasmine integrates contemplative practice, spiritual formation, and leadership development to support individuals and communities in living and leading from love as a daily practice.