What is Spiritual Direction?
People are often helped to integrate their faith and their life by talking on a regular basis (monthly) with someone they can trust. Spiritual direction is “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 relationship.” (William A. Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction.)
The spiritual director acts as a guide for the journey, helping the person to find the presence and call of God in the people and circumstances of his or her everyday life. The assumption is that God is already present there, and that another person, a guide, can help them to notice God’s presence and also to find words for talking about that presence, because they are not used to doing so. This guide, the spiritual director, is a specially trained listener, skilled in Scripture, discernment, the art of listening, and is a person of prayer. Therefore the director is able to help a person to sort out the various voices within and around them. While the director may suggest various kinds of ways of praying and spiritual exercises, the focus is much broader than that; it is upon the whole of a persons’ life experience as the place to meet God.
A person comes for spiritual direction on a monthly basis, usually meeting for an hour with the director. What is discussed during the session is kept in confidence by the director. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance so that the directee can be completely open to sharing the workings of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Spiritual direction is a professional service and directors are trained such that they hold everything said within their heart, sharing it only with the Lord in their own prayer.
NOTE: In compliance with GDPR rules, I wish to make it clear that I do not gather any information on anyone at any time.
- Spiritual direction focuses on religious experience. It is concerned with a person’s actual experience of a relationship with God.
- Spiritual direction is about a relationship. The religious experience is not isolated, nor does it consist of extraordinary events. It is what happens in an ongoing relationship between the person and God. Most often this is a relationship that is experienced in prayer.
- Spiritual direction is a relationship that is going somewhere. God is leading the person to deeper faith and more generous service. The spiritual director asks not just “what is happening?” but “what is moving forward?”
- The real spiritual director is God. God touches the human heart directly. The human spiritual director does not “direct” in the sense of giving advice and solving problems. Rather, the director helps a person respond to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship. (From IgnatianSpirituality.com)
The spiritual director acts as a guide for the journey, helping the person to find the presence and call of God in the people and circumstances of his or her everyday life. The assumption is that God is already present there, and that another person, a guide, can help them to notice God’s presence and also to find words for talking about that presence, because they are not used to doing so. This guide, the spiritual director, is a specially trained listener, skilled in Scripture, discernment, the art of listening, and is a person of prayer. Therefore the director is able to help a person to sort out the various voices within and around them. While the director may suggest various kinds of ways of praying and spiritual exercises, the focus is much broader than that; it is upon the whole of a persons’ life experience as the place to meet God.
A person comes for spiritual direction on a monthly basis, usually meeting for an hour with the director. What is discussed during the session is kept in confidence by the director. Confidentiality is of the utmost importance so that the directee can be completely open to sharing the workings of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Spiritual direction is a professional service and directors are trained such that they hold everything said within their heart, sharing it only with the Lord in their own prayer.
NOTE: In compliance with GDPR rules, I wish to make it clear that I do not gather any information on anyone at any time.