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Listening entails attentive hearing: it is not merely a passive act of “sitting and hearing,” in which we simply use our sense of hearing.
To truly listen to someone, we must actively engage not only our auditory and visual perception but also our thoughts.
In the Bible, the verb “to listen” (in Greek αkoúω) conveys not only the idea of “understanding,” but also “obeying” and “welcoming.”
These concepts are fundamental to family dialogue, where listening often requires suspending our own thoughts in order to make room for the other person. It involves profound understanding and the capacity to accept what the other person has to convey, whether in conversations between partners or with children.