On Christmas, one of my future daughters-in-law gave me a small gift bag filled with a variety of  simple presents. What made the gifts extra special was that each one was something I had mentioned to her in our conversations the past year. She had listened. That was the real gift.

We often hear about the power of words to hurt or to heal, but in his book, The Hidden Power of Kindness, Father Lawrence G. Lovasik reminds us that kind listening, as well as kind speaking, is a grace. “Just listening to other people is a superbly effective way of encouraging them, and that is a great act of charity. This requires a willingness to be silent, to let the other person tell his own story in his own way. You (may)realize that the other person is suffering spiritual pain and that you can alleviate that pain only by listening quietly and compassionately. Such listening becomes an exquisite expression of love.”

Here’s to a New Year filled with the grace of kind listening.