What Is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction focuses on one's relationship with God and prayer it is "help given by one Christian to another which enables that person [a directee] 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" with Jesus Christ, God's Self-revelation. (William A. Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, p. 8)
What Is the Role of a Spiritual Director?
Instructive
Directive
Contemplative
Who Comes to Spiritual Direction?
People experiencing a yearning for God come to deepen their prayer life, to understand more of their interior life, to discover more profoundly their unique relationship with Christ, and/or to find God's desire for their life during transition, loss, or challenges within the normal flow of life.
What Does Spiritual Direction Involve?
Spiritual direction involves the soul and all its faculties (intellect, memory, will, and imagination), one's desires, and one's direction in life (both temporal and eternal), with relationships with God, others, and the self as the central focus. This is a form of pastoral care in which two people come together to listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit's direction, so that one may grow in holiness for service. The content and frequency change over time, for the intermediate goal is temporal, while the end goal is eternity.
The Focus of Ignatian Spiritual Direction Is Discernment
Ignatian spiritual direction addresses what is in one's daily life, as one prays one's way through life's complex decisions and interprets one's spiritual experiences in those everyday circumstances.
(Paraphrased from Fr. Joseph Tetlow, SJ, Handing on the Fire)
Spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition serves the whole person, holding the balance at the threshold between prayer and everyday life. It is through prayer and self-examination that good fruit is brought forth, by the grace of God's gifting, so that we may discern the good we are to do. It helps one interpret the dynamic interplay of the head, heart, and hands.
What we think is what we do and feel.
What we feel is what we think and do.
What we do is what we think and feel.
"Since the God we seek is a busy God, we cannot let our interior life and prayer float above our daily life in our lifeworld. Our spiritual life is rooted in an experience of God freeing us from our sin so that we can present our bodies and everything we experience in a day, lifelong as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship…."
(Joseph Tetlow, SJ, Handing on the Fire, pp. 30–31)
In looking for God, we often find ourselves:
Who we are
Whose we are
What we are called to be and do
(Principle and Foundation, Spiritual Exercises [23])
Letting God Mold Us
"Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly."
(St. Ignatius)
How Does Ignatian Spiritual Direction Help?
Ignatian spiritual direction helps one discern one's way: to find what God means for one to become and what the best action is to take. An Ignatian director supports the whole person in prayerfully discerning the next good thing as they try to find God in all things. This is the process of discernment: coming to a decision, after prayerful attention to the head, heart, and hands, about what will bring an increase of faith, hope, and love.
What Does a Catholic Spiritual Director Do?
A spiritual director helps the directee notice the presence and call of God in the circumstances of everyday life and find words for talking about those encounters, which deepens the experience of being in relationship with one's Creator. The director also guides one in sorting out the various "voices" within and around them in discerning God's will.
At times, spiritual direction sessions may enter into other forms of spiritual companionship in order to help the directee find God's call in their life. Depending on the circumstances, the (human) spiritual director accompanies the retreatant/directee as a spiritual counselor, a companion, a facilitator, a coach, a teacher, a mentor, and always as a holy listener, for it is the Holy Spirit who is the Spiritual Director.