Where Ancient Perspective and Modern Sensibilities Create a New Horizon with the Help of St. Teresa of Avila
How spiritual direction helps you tend to what’s happening beneath the surface.
Spiritual Direction is a ministry rooted and led by prayer. Prayer invites us to listen deeply, opening our hearts, minds, and vision to new ways of seeing God, others, and ourselves.
It is the art of being attentive to how the Holy Spirit communicates through our varying range of emotions, circumstances, and ordinariness as a means of becoming God- and self-aware. Prayer within spiritual direction is the act of spiritual discernment. By paying attention to our feelings, we become more deeply aware of what is happening within us and recognize God’s presence and activity in our lives, thus discovering how both work together in tandem toward wholeness and healing.
EMOTIONAL SIGNALS
Don’t be afraid. Emotions can be invitations from God that help us pause and discern. Our emotions operate a bit like the lights on your car’s dashboard. When something isn’t quite right in the overall system of your vehicle, a light will signal an interior problem. The advancement of these systems means we no longer need to guess where the malfunction is happening—we can go directly to the source. Just like these warning signs, our emotions are God’s way of helping us notice and discern where to focus our attention. They point us toward places in our hearts that may need healing, growth, gratitude, or greater awareness of God’s presence.
In spiritual direction, we explore emotions by noticing anxiety, fear, sadness, anger, joy, a racing heart, or butterflies in your stomach, and by listening for God within the signals. Prayer helps us pause to attend to the feeling, listen to it, and bring it to God for discerning next steps. In conversation with God, much like your mechanic, you can begin to discern what the emotion is revealing and respond with the wisdom, rather than anxiety and the panic of a quick fix to feel better. In spiritual direction, we work with God toward inner healing, spiritual freedom, and a flourishing partnership.
SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR: A TRUSTED MECHANIC
It is one thing to begin noticing and discerning the inner movements within, but another thing to plunge into the work needed to respond to God’s invitations.
That’s where a spiritual director comes in. It is like taking your car to a trusted mechanic. When a warning light comes on, you don’t ignore it—you bring your car to someone who knows how to look beneath the surface, identify what needs attention, and help you care for it before a small issue becomes a larger one.
In much the same way, spiritual direction is a safe and welcoming space to explore your inner life. Together with a trained spiritual director, you pay attention to your emotions, the movements of the Holy Spirit, and the places where God is inviting you to healing, growth, or deeper trust. A spiritual director doesn’t provide all the answers or tell you what to do. Instead, they listen with you, ask thoughtful questions, and help you discern how God is already at work in your life.
Spiritual direction helps explore the nature of prayer and your relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit while attending to the flashing lights in the dash. Because spiritual direction is rooted in prayer, it is a proving ground that emboldens and guides us toward how to address the inner movements you are experiencing. Together, with a director, you develop the know-how and skills of noticing, naming, discerning, praying, and allowing God to restore the inner landscape of your soul. You learn how to walk in step with the Spirit in confidence, with fortitude, and with Jesus as your partner in all things.
Choosing to explore your life with God through prayer in spiritual direction is an adventure—a lifelong journey of discovery and transformation.
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