SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Contact Kathleen Ebner, MA - kaebner@comcast.net or 302-644-7300 for more information

What does a Spiritual Director do? A spiritual director listens to the sacred story of your life. Spiritual direction is really not about being "directed." Rather it is more about being encouraged to draw closer to God. In the midst of our modern busy lives, it is difficult to notice God's action in our daily affairs. We must remember, however, that God seeks us where we are and it is up to us to effectively recognize His presence and grace in our everyday lives. This is where spiritual direction can help by encouraging us to explore a closer relationship with God. A spiritual director has been called by God and trained to companion with another person, and is empowered by the Church to serve the community by listening to the person's life story with an ear for the movement of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual director helps the other to address God directly and to listen to what God has to communicate. The focus of this kind of spiritual direction is directly concerned with the person's actual experiences of his or her relationship with God. We can thus define spiritual direction as help given by one Christian to another which enables the 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 God, and to live out the consequences of this relationship. Have more questions? Spiritual direction has deep roots in our Judeo-Christian heritage. The patriarchs, prophets and the elders of the Jewish community were recognized for their wisdom and looked to for guidance in communicating with Yahweh. Over 18 centuries ago in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, Christians who took an acute interest in the spiritual life started seeking out elders for help in listening to the music of the Spirit in their lives. As one reads the New Testament, the history of the early Church, and the directives of the Apostles and Fathers, it is evident that spiritual direction was once normal for all Christians. The gospels describe Jesus serving as a mentor to his disciples. Additionally, Acts of the Apostles Chapter 9 describes Ananias helping Paul of Tarsus to grow in his newfound experience of Christianity. Likewise, several Pauline Epistles describe Paul mentoring both Timothy and Titus among others. St. John Cassian, who lived in the fourth century, provided some of the earliest recorded guidelines on the practice of spiritual direction. He introduced mentoring in the monasteries. Each novice was put under the care of an older monk. St. Benedict integrated Cassian's guidelines into what is now know as the Rule of Saint Benedict. By the 16th century, St. Ignatius of Loyola and his followers were offering spiritual exercises to sensitize people to their personal experiences of God. In the 20th century, Vatican II's affirmation of the Universal Call to Holiness ignited interest in things spiritual and mystical among the laity and renewed this practice for the Church in our world.