In his famous Rule, Benedict often prefaces his instructions with the remark "Listen, my son." Learning to listen is vital because to be spiritual is to be in an obedient relationship, to be responsive. The beginning of spirituality — the beginning of being responsive — is learning to listen. It is the beginning of a relationship to God which the twelfth-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen described as, "I dance with you as my lead." Reading scriptures of itself will not change us, but responding to the scriptures will. Reading the scriptures gives us the chance to respond, to dance with God as our lead.
— Diogenes Allen, Spiritual Theology