Patricia Marie Cosgrove entered Christ-Like Listening with a lifetime of experience in counselling, social work, spiritual accompaniment and Christian ministry. She had spent her professional life helping others and understood both the power and responsibility involved when one person entrusts another with part of their story. Yet the formation still surprised her.

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Patricia described it as “one of the most life-giving experiences” she had received in a long time. With the enthusiasm and humour that marked her personality, she said that everything she had learned during her professional life could be found within the program—“plus, plus, plus.” The essential addition, she explained, was that Christ-Like Listening placed Jesus at the centre.

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That centre changed the meaning of listening. It was no longer simply a collection of counselling methods or communication techniques. It became a way of allowing another person to be received with the attention, love and reverence of Christ.

Patricia recognized how easily listening can become crowded by the listener's thoughts. We may be preparing an answer, remembering something else or deciding what another person should do. Although we appear to be listening, our attention is divided. Christ-Like Listening challenged her to “get out of the way” so that the person speaking could be genuinely seen, heard, understood and appreciated.

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For Patricia, this was especially significant because many people pass through life without ever experiencing that kind of attention. A conversation shaped by Christ can offer something different: a place where the other person does not have to compete for space, defend their experience or become what the listener thinks they should be. They are given room to speak, discover and recognize more clearly who God is calling them to become.

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She also valued the small-group practice that followed the teaching. Participants worked in groups of three, taking turns speaking, listening and observing. The practice helped them notice what supported a genuine encounter and what interfered with it. Over time, the process could become more natural: listening without controlling the conversation, guiding without imposing and reflecting another person's experience without judgment.

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Patricia understood this as a way of becoming “God's mirror”—helping another person see themselves more truthfully and compassionately, as God sees them. Good listening, in her words, is life-giving because it creates connection and brings love into the world.

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Patricia died on 15 September 2026 after a brief and aggressive illness. In the final weeks of her life, the attentive faith she described in this interview remained visible. She wrote of being at peace on her journey home, surrounded by prayer, love and even joy. She continued to think of others, to pray for them and to entrust her life to God.

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Her testimony is shared with gratitude. It preserves something important about the way Patricia lived: Jesus at the centre, the other person treated with dignity, and listening offered as an act of love.