I invite you to evaluate your spiritual journey. Could your personal relationship with Jesus Christ be better? Most of us would likely answer “yes” to this question. Most people that I speak with admit that they would like their relationship with Christ to be stronger, more engaging and more intimate. Building good relationships is not an easy task, and when it comes to building our relationship with Jesus Christ, it can even more challenging since we cannot physically see or have a dialogue with Him.
To this end, the Church provides us with many forms of prayer—each, in various ways, provides us a path to connection and relationship with Christ. But knowing which prayers will be most beneficial can be a difficult hurdle to overcome. That’s where spiritual direction can be of great help.
Health issues currently limit my ability to serve as a parish priest as I had in the past. This led me to discern how I can best continue to serve. Bishop Bonnnar, through the power of the Holy Spirit, invited me to consider becoming a spiritual director to serve in our diocese, particularly for our priests.
After prayerful thought and reflection, considering my previous informal directing experiences, I accepted this call. It meant that I would need to take graduate-level courses at a Catholic university so that I can be properly accredited as a spiritual director. After searching several Catholic institutions, I landed at Loyola University of Chicago, as they offered the best spiritual program to fit my needs and the needs of our diocese.
Not Just For a Few
Speaking to those around the diocese about this new path, I typically get asked, “What is spiritual direction?” or “What does a spiritual director do?” The subject of spiritual direction is usually not in the mainstream conversations at our parishes. However, it is in some form needed for all the faithful to help build the close relationship with God that we long for and that we know will help us in our daily lives. With this in mind, let’s explore spiritual direction in the context of your faith life.
Spiritual direction is a prayerful process where a spiritual director works with a person, known as a directee, who is looking to enhance his or her prayer life and relationship with God. Typically, the directee is at a place where they feel that their prayer life could be better or is dry or stale, not effective, and in some cases, even dark. This can be due to many factors in a person’s life, past and present.
The desire of the directee is to seek the director’s help to look at not only that person’s prayer life, but other factors in their life that may be derailing fruitful prayer. The process calls for the directee to be open and honest, as the relationship between the director and the directee is a confidential one. The directee and the director should, after a few sessions, build a good working relationship, but if one does not feel comfortable with the other, then this must be addressed—sometimes resulting in the directee seeking a new director.
It Takes Three
For good spiritual direction to take hold and help the person seeking it, it requires three entities to be involved—the director, the directee and most importantly, God working through the Holy Spirit. The first two must be completely open to the working of their Creator in this process. The director’s call is to assess where the directee is at in their connection with God. If the directee has a healthy view of God in their life, then there is a good foundation on which to move forward. If, however, the directee has a dark view of God, the director and directee must work together to help the latter understand what must be overcome so that they see God as a loving Father.
For all of this to happen, it takes a total self-emptying of the director and directee so that God has room to work through the heart and soul of both. The director helps to move the directee to understand God’s plan of love for them, showing that by letting go of self, one can be moved by the Spirit to comprehend how life can be lived in a new and better way, walking with God. Keep in mind that this is not instant. While the effects of spiritual direction may be immediate, the process of good direction will evolve over time.
The directee should plan to work with a director as long as it is fruitful. Our lives are constantly evolving, continually changing. Changes in our worldly lives can precipitate needed changes in our spiritual lives. What used to work for us in our prayer lives may not be as effective for us in the present. Holding on to the same prayer life over many years may be holding us back for a life-giving connection with God through our prayer. Spiritual direction works to help a person mature in their prayer life to help meet the needs of a maturing life in this world.
Typically, a directee will meet with a director monthly, for an average of a one-hour session. The real work comes after each meeting, as the directee will unpack what came about in each session and then use what is learned to combine their current forms of prayer with new forms of prayer to build a richer relationship with Christ.
There are many facets to spiritual direction that can help every one of us build a stronger and more intimate relationship with the One who created us. It is Jesus Christ who has given us the model of turning our lives over to the Father with faith and pure trust. On many occasions in our Gospels, we hear of Jesus taking time away to pray and commune with His Father, not only to do His will, but to bolster their intimate relationship that carried Him through His ministry, to his trial, Crucifixion and Death, to the ultimate joy of His Resurrection and rightful place in heaven. As members of His Body, we are invited to live in this same intimate relationship through our lows and highs of life so that we may know God in all places in our lives and for the life to come.
This is the first of a series of columns in which I will offer more information about incorporating spiritual direction in our lives. This will include what to look for in a spiritual director as well as some practical skills that can help you find direction in your prayer with God.
If you would personally like to seek out your own spiritual director, speak with your pastor, deacon or pastoral associate at your parish and ask if they can recommend a director to you. You can also contact the Jesuit Retreat Center in Parma at
www.jesuitretreatcenter.org or search the Catholic Spiritual Direction Directory at www.catholicspiritualdirectors.com. I invite you to follow along as spiritual direction is open for each of us to explore and grow in our relationship with our triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
