What is Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction is a sacred conversation between a director and a seeker who wants to grow in the Christian life. A trained spiritual director, armed with tools such as prayer methods, discernment and decision-making know-how, helps a directee to discover and notice God’s presence in their life and to develop a closer relationship with the Divine.

Spiritual direction helps one to notice God’s actions in daily life. All trained spiritual directors in the Christian tradition will tell you that they are not “directors” per se but they see themselves more as spiritual companions. Spiritual directors may not have every answer for you; in fact wisdom resides within you. The spiritual director, in offering attentive listening and acting in humility and with full trust that the Holy Spirit is the Director, acts as a point-person to areas where you might have missed. Sometimes, they may offer suggestions to an issue you have.

Most spiritual direction are done on a one-to-one basis, but there are also exceptions, such as group spiritual direction.

For more information about spiritual direction, visit https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/listening-for-god-through-spiritual-direction/

The term “direction” suggests that one person tells another what to believe or how to act, but a spiritual director helps others to freely name what God is doing in their lives and helps to shape the seeker’s response to the Divine.

To distinguish this kind of companionship from a more authoritarian approach, some prefer the term “spiritual guide” or “soul friend”.

Kathleen Fischer

If you are thinking, “What is God’s will for me?”, “What does the call to holiness require of me?”, “How might I listen to the voice of God?”, then you are a candidate for spiritual direction.