“Spiritual direction is an art, a dynamic flow of listening and responding, of questions and wondering, of encouragement, of silence, all in the context of prayer.”
Sue Pickering, Spiritual Direction: A Practical Introduction
Who is a Spiritual Director?
A spiritual director holds sacred space together with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to explore the movements of God in a person’s life through prayerful, compassionate listening and noticing.
I like to think of a director as a fellow pilgrim who accompanies a person on their spiritual journey. With the Holy Spirit as the guide, a director “helps a directee ‘pay attention’ and respond to God’s initiative. A director may do this by taking pause to explore a person’s everyday life, notice and watch for signs of grace, wonder about their sense of God’s presence of absence, or listen for God’s invitations toward growth.” (Sue Pickering) A director offers open questions, reflective statements, lingering silence for contemplation, noticing, prayer practices and compassionate listening. A director is trained in this practice and should be someone with whom you feel safe to share your story.
What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction is a spacious place to explore with Jesus.
He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:19 (NIV)
God is delighted to rescue us and bring us into a spacious place to explore his goodness, who he’s created us to be, and where he is present in our daily lives. Spiritual direction provides space to slow down, be still, and know God whilst becoming known ourselves. Within direction one may experience varying forms of prayer, silence, story-telling, discernment, reflection, remembering, contemplation, and noticing all aimed at exploring the depths of God’s love for us and the world.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3: 16-19 (NIV)
Direction is a sacred time to tend to the transformational work the Spirit longs to accomplish in one’s ordinary life. Direction is a spiritual practice toward maturity and discipleship. It is the path of learning how to discern and align oneself with God’s loving will. Deeper intimacy with God is how we transform more and more into the image of Christ. When this happens, we begin to experience greater spiritual freedoms that compel us to serve and love others as Christ desires us to do as his living body.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit,
2 Corinthians 3: 17-18 (NIV)
If you have concerns about the historicity of spiritual direction within the Church, please know it has long been practiced in various forms by the early church and beyond as a form of pastoral care. There are contemplative and orthodox forms of direction.
If you interested in spiritual direction, spiritual practices, or retreats please reach out using the contact form. To learn more about spiritual direction, view more articles @ Spiritual Direction: Diving Deeper.
