What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction is an ancient practice in which a trained person helps others to listen for the voice of God in their lives. The first known spiritual directors were the desert fathers and mothers, the fourth century hermits often considered the first Christian monastics who lived in the Near Eastern desert and helped each other as they tried to live Jesus’s teachings. Spiritual direction has been a part of the Catholic and Anglican traditions for many centuries, but is now coming into more widespread, ecumenical use.
Spiritual directors generally meet regularly, usually monthly, with their directees. The meetings focus on the spiritual experience of the directee, and give the directee an opportunity to tell his or her spiritual story. In spite of their names, spiritual directors are not usually very directive; they do not press their own agendas and their focus is not on giving advice. Through prayer and contemplative listening, they try to help the directee listen to and experience the Holy Spirit.
As a spiritual director, I specialize in working with people who are uncomfortable with institutional religion or who are affiliated with more than one faith tradition. Often such people are quite isolated; even if they are involved in a faith community, they may feel quite alienated there. As they tell their spiritual stories, we listen together for where they are being led by God. We also look together at their images of God and the holy. Often we discover ways in which their images of God correspond to their alienation from communities. For example, they might be standing aloof from a judgmental God, afraid of an angry God, or hesitant to believe in God at all yet desperately longing for God. As this exploration process unfolds, often they find themselves more able to enter into some kind of community. We also look at ways in which they might be able to develop a more regular spiritual practice if they don’t have one. Where in their lives are they most likely to experience God? In sitting quietly, in looking at art, in listening to music, in movement, in nature? We talk about how to expand these parts of their lives where the voice of God is easiest for them to hear. As they speak, they often realize that they know where God is leading them. Their next step is within them, and we hear it together in our contemplative listening.
For information on how to find a spiritual director, go to Spiritual Directors International.