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I do have space for new directees at this time. I can meet in person (Orange county, CA), as well as by phone and internet video (Skype, iChat, etc.). For more information about a free 15 minute exploratory phone or Skype conversation, go to “Getting Started“.
Through the centuries, there have been many varying ideas about spiritual direction. Some have focused on deep examination of the heart, others on matters of conscience or calling, others on discernment, and others, perhaps more recently, on a more therapeutic approach. [1] All of these can be helpful windows through which spiritual direction gazes.
Perhaps an easy way for me to share with you what I’ve come to understand spiritual direction to be in my training and experience is through some meaningful quotations:
As we have come to understand it, spiritual direction differs from moral guidance, psychological counseling, and the practice of confessional, preaching, or healing ministries (though having affinities with them) in that it directly assists individuals in developing and cultivating their personal relationship with God.” [2]
“We define Christian spiritual direction, then, as help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationships. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on religious experience, i.e., any experience of the mysterious Other whom we call God.” [3]
“…the spiritual director will be finally interested in the ultimate dimension of all this experience, namely: Where is God in all of this? Where in your life do you encounter him most powerfully? What do you think he is moving or calling you to? How would he want you to grow spiritually through the routine of your work, the conflicts and joys of your living situation, the important relationships of your life, your temptations, your feelings about yourself? How might faith, hope, and love pervade your ordinary perceptions and choices more completely? The concern of spiritual direction is not a separate realm, but the deepest dimension of every realm.” [4]
“In any case, one does not primarily tell the spiritual companion of the sins one has committed but rather of what the ancient texts call ‘thoughts’ or logismoi. By this they did not mean so much what we think but rather what we sense, what we strive after: feelings, yearnings and inclinations that freely arise in one’s heart and imagination, even though they seldom or never become full-fledged sins.” [5]
“What we need to do is bring the director into contact with our real self, as best we can, and not fear to let him see what is false in our false self. Now this right away implies a relaxed, humble attitude in which we let go of ourselves and renounce our unconscious efforts to maintain a façade. We must let the director know that we really think, what we really feel, and what we really desire, even when these things are not altogether honorable. We must be quite frank about our motives insofar as we can be so. The mere effort to admit that we are not as unselfish or as zealous as we pretend to be is a great source of grace.” [6]
“John Wright, S. J., in a monograph entitled ‘A Discussion on Spiritual Direction,’ describes spiritual direction as ‘an inter-personal situation, in which one person assists another to develop and come to maturity in the life of the spirit: that is, the life of faith, hope and love.’ Wright (‘to oversimplify very much’) identifies faith with the directee’s prayer life, hope with ‘his difficulties, sufferings, disappointments and problems,’ and love with ‘his life in the Christian community.’” [7]
Footnotes:
[1] Gerald G. May. Care of Mind/Care of Spirit. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1982, 1992, p. 2.
[2]William A. Barry & William J. Connolly. The Practice of Spiritual Direction. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1982, p. ix.
[3]Barry & Connolly, p. 8.
[4]Thomas N. Hart. The Art of Christian Listening. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1980, p. 32-33.
[5]André Louf. Tuning in to Grace: The Quest for God. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992, p. 88.
[6]Thomas Merton. Spiritual Direction and Meditation. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1960, p. 33.
[7]Thomas H. Green, S. J. The Friend of the Bridegroom: Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with Christ. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2000, p. 33-34.
©2005-2009 Alan Fadling.
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