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Have you ever had Spiritual Direction? When I first started I really did not have the slightest idea of what it was about.
Then I read The Practice of Spiritual Direction way back in the late1980's.
Good book but also some things to kick around.
"spiritual direction is concerned with helping a person directly with his or her relationship with God." p. 5
That sounds simple enough. But it gets more sophisticated.
"The ministering person 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 the relationship itself between God and the person. The person is helped not so much to understand that relationship better, but to engage in it, to enter into dialogue with God. Spiritual direction of this kind focusses on what happens when a person listens to and responds to a self-communicating God." p. 6
So we might be asked questions like, "What is God like for you in prayer?" That is actually a tough question to answer. To really be articulate and honest rather than saying what we think we should say.
or
'What happens in your prayer?"
"What do you experience God telling you in prayer?"
"Who is God for you?"
"We define Christian spiritual direction, then, as help given by one Christian to another which enables that 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 this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on religious experience, i.e., any experience of the mysterious Other whom we call God. Moreover, this experience is viewed, not as an isolated event, but as an expression of the ongoing personal relationship God has established with each one of us." p 8
So the priority is given to experience rather than teachings or methods or things we should do or not do
"The spiritual director is most interested in what happens when a person consciously puts himself into the presence of God....He is interested in the whole person, but the focus of interest is the prayer experience of the directee."
I wonder if this sort of attention is a critical missing element in most of our lives because it is not something often articulate unless we write in a personal journal.
"What is God like for me in prayer?" Well, God does not talk to me verbally unless I read words in scripture. "What do I feel in prayer? Experience God in prayer?" Well, it depends and it varies. Sometimes it seems no one is there, no one listening. At other times it is as if the air around me, the environment itself is God present to me. And sometimes it depends on where my thoughts go.
Then I read The Practice of Spiritual Direction way back in the late1980's.
Good book but also some things to kick around.
"spiritual direction is concerned with helping a person directly with his or her relationship with God." p. 5
That sounds simple enough. But it gets more sophisticated.
"The ministering person 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 the relationship itself between God and the person. The person is helped not so much to understand that relationship better, but to engage in it, to enter into dialogue with God. Spiritual direction of this kind focusses on what happens when a person listens to and responds to a self-communicating God." p. 6
So we might be asked questions like, "What is God like for you in prayer?" That is actually a tough question to answer. To really be articulate and honest rather than saying what we think we should say.
or
'What happens in your prayer?"
"What do you experience God telling you in prayer?"
"Who is God for you?"
"We define Christian spiritual direction, then, as help given by one Christian to another which enables that 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 this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on religious experience, i.e., any experience of the mysterious Other whom we call God. Moreover, this experience is viewed, not as an isolated event, but as an expression of the ongoing personal relationship God has established with each one of us." p 8
So the priority is given to experience rather than teachings or methods or things we should do or not do
"The spiritual director is most interested in what happens when a person consciously puts himself into the presence of God....He is interested in the whole person, but the focus of interest is the prayer experience of the directee."
I wonder if this sort of attention is a critical missing element in most of our lives because it is not something often articulate unless we write in a personal journal.
"What is God like for me in prayer?" Well, God does not talk to me verbally unless I read words in scripture. "What do I feel in prayer? Experience God in prayer?" Well, it depends and it varies. Sometimes it seems no one is there, no one listening. At other times it is as if the air around me, the environment itself is God present to me. And sometimes it depends on where my thoughts go.
