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Dear MICHELE KEARNEY,
We
live in troubling times. Personal trials and tragic happenings in the
world can drive us into negative patterns of thinking. More than ever we
need the power of prayer to strengthen our faith in God’s plan for us
and trust that God has our best interests at heart.
“Do not be afraid, I am with you.
From here I want to enlighten.
Live with a penitent heart.”
May
these words of Our Lord to Blessed James Alberione, imprinted on the
walls of Pauline chapels throughout the world, be a reminder that God is
with us in the here and now of all that happens in our daily lives.
In Christ,
Sr. Mary Mark Wickenhiser, FSP
Publisher
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Spiritual Direction “To Go”
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Spiritual direction is a “gathering together” of two people in the name of Jesus, comprising
a spiritual director and the person seeking direction, and its goal is
to help the directee develop a closer relationship with God and better
discern how the Holy Spirit is working in their life. Modern spiritual
direction most often refers to a relationship that’s more like spiritual
companionship, in which the director is present as a spiritual friend
who listens with the intent of helping the directee develop their prayer
life and relationship with God.
There have been several
different types (or models) of spiritual direction throughout Church
history. Some of us, especially those who’ve read the lives of the
saints, have various ideas of what spiritual direction has looked like
in the past. There have been relationships of spiritual guidance similar
to that of parent and child, teacher and student, and confessor and
penitent (the latter still in use when spiritual advice is given as part
of the sacrament of reconciliation). The lives of the saints also give
us beautiful examples of spiritual friendships.
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Spiritual
direction is often seen as a relationship with a wise and grounded
person; but spiritual direction takes on new meaning when the words are
those of Our Lord himself.
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As scripture says, there are many members of the body, and each one is good and necessary. The
idea is to determine and encourage the directee to be the unique person
that God made them to be, doing the things that God is personally
asking of each of us.
But sometimes it’s difficult to
establish that relationship. People live with the constraints of time
and schedules, of geographic location and isolation, and of available
resources. Not everyone has the luxury of spiritual direction; yet
everybody needs it.
So here’s a radical idea: why not spiritual direction “to go”?
There
are those among us to whom Jesus has spoken directly, and who have
recorded the words so that they can be shared with others. You may have read the beautiful conversations captured by Gabrielle Bossis in He and I;
and Father Gaston Courtois has done something similar, though in a way
that appeals most strongly to men, in a beautiful collection of daily
readings titled When The Lord Speaks to Your Heart.... |
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