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"Spiritual direction could be defined as taking place when one person (the director) prayerfully supports and encourages another person (the directee) to attend and respond to God."
"Spiritual direction could be defined as taking place when one person (the director) prayerfully supports and encourages another person (the directee) to attend and respond to God."
Spiritual direction is all about your relationship with the God who loves you. It involves three people: directee (you), director, and God. The director is not there to direct you in how you relate to/with God, but to enable you to direct your attention to the presence of God already in your life.
The director is a fellow pilgrim and seeker on the journey of life and faith. Whilst many have undertaken training and formation in offering this ministry, they are not experts or gurus, but 'soul friends' who have experienced the power of being accompanied on the journey and feel called to offer the same to others.
Listening is at the heart of spiritual direction. The director will listen deeply, contemplatively, and openly to all the directee brings to a session: verbally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. They will also be listening for the Spirit in their midst, helping them notice and be curious about where God wants to meet or draw the directee.
"The real 'director' is God the Holy Spirit, who initiates the directee's deepening relationship with the Trinity, with [their] own self, with other people, and with the realities of life in the global village of the twenty-first century."
"The real 'director' is God the Holy Spirit, who initiates the directee's deepening relationship with the Trinity, with [their] own self, with other people, and with the realities of life in the global village of the twenty-first century."
As God permeates all of life, anything and everything can be brought to a session of spiritual direction. It may be that you have a big decision to make and you are seeking God's leading. It may be that something has happened that makes you question your sense of yourself, your faith, or God. It may be you want to draw closer to God, glimpsing God's love for you and all of creation more often in life.
These big questions of life, the universe, and everything are all appropriate areas of exploration in spiritual direction. So is the ordinariness of life: the ups, the downs, and the mundaneness of existing. Not everything we experience in life is from the mountaintop or the deepest, darkest valley. In fact, most of the life we lead is moment-by-moment and day-by-day. God is there too, and all of it can help point us to who we are in God.
"While the goal of spiritual direction is to help people grow...emphasis is also given to the consequences of this growth: the outworking of the directees' life at home and in their chosen vocation, in their decision-making, and their imprint on the earth."
"While the goal of spiritual direction is to help people grow...emphasis is also given to the consequences of this growth: the outworking of the directees' life at home and in their chosen vocation, in their decision-making, and their imprint on the earth."
Much of the work of spiritual direction is focussed on your inner life and your relationship with God; however, it would be a mistake to think that it is only about you and God. If God is God of the whole of creation, how we relate with God must necessarily impact how we relate with other people and creation itself.
This is not as heavy as it sounds! Instead, as you grow ever-closer to God and ever-more into the person God made you to be, you increasingly see the world through the loving gaze of God. This enables you to respond increasingly from a place of love and make decisions accordingly.
Quotes from Sue Pickering, Spiritual Direction: A Practical Introduction, Canterbury Press, 2008.
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