What is Spiritual Direction?
“Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, ‘I came as a guest, and you received Me’.”
(Rule of St. Benedict – Chapter 53)
Welcome to spiritual direction! Spiritual Direction, also known as Spiritual Companioning, is a welcoming, respectful, gentle and non-judgmental process of sacred listening that helps me recognize more clearly how God is being revealed in each moment and event of my life. It is a special form of spiritual friendship.
Spiritual direction invites a deeper relationship with God, a stronger understanding of every aspect of my humanity, a listening to God’s call in my life.
A Spiritual Director is NOT a counselor, a psychologist or a moral advisor. He or she is a person who has received special training to accompany others on their spiritual journey to discover God’s presence in all of life.
A spiritual Director is not a person to supply answers. He or she is present to enable another “seeker” to ask their own spiritual questions and questions of meaning. A Spiritual Director “walks with” a directee (a person receiving spiritual direction) as he or she thinks, prays and discerns God’s loving presence and invitation in the “everyday experience of a life of faith”.
When might Spiritual Direction be helpful?
- When you are experiencing a new sense of God in your life …
- When you are struggling with spiritual questions and questions of meaning …
- When God feels absent in your life …
- When you are trying to discern God’s will in your life …
- When you are facing an important decision or a significant change or transition in life …
- When you are feeling fragmented, disinterested, out of touch, or fearful in your life …
- When you desire to grow in your relationship with God and others through prayer and deeper compassion …
- When you are struggling in faith in the context of a relationship in life …
- When you want to become involved or to deepen your commitment to ministry within your faith community …
Then Spiritual Direction may be something for you to consider!
If you are seeking Spiritual Direction ask your parish priest or a person involved in ministry/chaplaincy in your parish, work place or college to recommend someone. There is generally a manageable cost associated with spiritual direction but each person’s means or ability to pay will be considered. So welcome – receive a gift of deepening relationship with God, self and others and support in personal discernment!