Spiritual Direction

Saint Francis de Sales giving Saint Jane Frances de Chantal the rule of the Visitation

Saint Francis de Sales giving Saint Jane Frances de Chantal the rule of the Visitation

Spiritual Direction is a confidential relationship in which a mature guide helps another person recognize grace, confront obstacles, and respond freely to God.

Overview

Spiritual direction is the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine, or to learn and grow in their personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of their encounters of the divine, or how they are cultivating a life attuned to spiritual things. The director listens and asks questions to assist the directee in their process of reflection and spiritual growth. Advocates of Spiritual direction claim that it develops a deeper awareness with the spiritual aspect of being human, and that it is neither psychotherapy nor counseling nor financial planning.

Historians of philosophy like Ilsetraut and Pierre Hadot have argued that spiritual direction was already practiced and recommended by the main schools of philosophy, as well as by physicians like Galen, as part of spiritual practices in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Purpose and practice

Spiritual direction assists growth in prayer, virtue, vocation, and discernment. The person directed speaks honestly about prayer, choices, temptations, consolations, duties, and patterns of life; the director listens, asks questions, recalls Catholic teaching, and suggests means of response. God remains the principal guide, so direction should foster mature freedom rather than dependence on a personality.

A director needs sound faith, discretion, experience, prudence, and awareness of personal limits. Priests, consecrated persons, and qualified lay people can offer spiritual guidance according to competence. Sacramental confession is distinct: absolution requires a priest with faculties and is protected by the sacramental seal, whereas spiritual direction can occur outside confession under an appropriate duty of confidentiality.

Boundaries and freedom

Direction does not grant authority to command every personal decision, replace conscience, diagnose illness, or solicit intimate disclosures irrelevant to spiritual growth. The director must respect vocation, family duties, professional care, safeguarding norms, and the person's right to leave the relationship. Sexual, financial, emotional, or institutional exploitation is a grave abuse of spiritual authority.

A person should seek another guide when manipulation, doctrinal unreliability, boundary violations, or lack of competence makes the relationship harmful. Ordinarily one avoids consulting multiple directors merely to collect preferred answers. Regularity, prayer, concrete resolutions, and periodic review help direction remain ordered to holiness rather than conversation without conversion.

Roman Catholic forms

While there is some degree of variability, there are primarily two forms of spiritual direction in the Roman Catholic Church: regular direction and retreat direction. They differ largely in the frequency of meetings and in the intensity of reflection.

Regular direction can involve a one- to two-hour meeting every four to eight weeks, and thus is slightly less intense than retreat direction, although spiritual exercises and disciplines are often given for the directee to attempt between meetings.

If the directee is on a retreat (lasting a weekend, a week or even 40 days), they will generally meet with their director on a daily basis for one hour. During these daily meetings, exercises or spiritual disciplines such as lectio divina are given to the directee as sustenance to further their spiritual growth.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola are a popular example of guidelines used for spiritual direction.

Historical traditions

Ancient Greece and Rome

Most of ancient schools of philosophy remarked the importance of spiritual direction in order to improve moral education. This guidance, a kind of "therapy of the souls", led the pupils to self-awareness of their faults and progress. Socrates can be considered as the ideal of spiritual director among his followers, but Plato also guided his students with personal advice and comfort through their learning process. Aristotle would have fixed some rules for a proper spiritual guidance of pupils in the second book of his Rhetoric. Other examples can be found in Cynics, Epicureans—who used epistolary form for this purpose (e.g., Metrodorus)— or Stoics —like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Musonius Rufus or Epictetus in his Discourses—who actively practiced spiritual direction. Philodemus' work On Frank Criticism showed that spiritual guidance should be based on freedom of speech (parrhesia) and mutual respect between master and pupil. A physician like Galen, not affiliated to any school of philosophy, recommended to follow spiritual guidance from an aged and experienced man before attempting self-examination.

Western Christianity

Within Christianity, spiritual direction has its roots in early Christianity. The gospels describe Jesus serving as a mentor to his disciples. Additionally, Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 describes Ananias helping Paul of Tarsus to grow in his newfound experience of Christianity. Likewise, several of the Pauline epistles describe Paul mentoring both Timothy and Titus among others. Tradition also states that John the Evangelist tutored Polycarp, the 2nd-century bishop of Smyrna.

Theologian John Cassian, who lived in the 4th century, provided some of the earliest recorded guidelines on the Christian practice of spiritual direction. He introduced mentoring in the monasteries. Each novice was put under the care of an older monk. Benedict of Nursia integrated Cassian's guidelines into what is now known as the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Spiritual direction is widespread in the Catholic tradition: a person with wisdom and spiritual discernment, usually but not exclusively a priest or consecrated in general, provides counsel to a person who wishes to make a journey of faith and discovery of God's will in their life. The spiritual guide aims to discern and understand what the Holy Spirit, through the situations of life, spiritual insights in the fruit of prayer, reading and meditation on the Bible, tells the person accompanied. The spiritual father or spiritual director may provide advice, give indications of life and prayer, resolving doubts in matters of faith and morals without replacing the choices and decisions to the person accompanying.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy comes from the same pre-schism traditions, but the role of a "spiritual director" or "elder" in Orthodoxy has maintained its important role. The original Greek term geron (meaning 'elder', as in gerontology) was rendered by the Russian word starets, from the Old Church Slavonic starĭtsĭ, 'elder', derived from starŭ, 'old'. The Greek tradition has a long unbroken history of elders and disciples, such as Sophronius and John Moschos in the 7th century, Symeon the Elder and Symeon the New Theologian in the 11th century, and contemporary charismatic gerontes such as Porphyrios and Paisios. Sergius of Radonezh and Nil Sorsky were two most venerated startsy of Muscovy. The revival of elders in the Slavic world is associated with the name of Paisius Velichkovsky (1722–1794), who produced the Russian translation of the Philokalia. The most famous Russian starets of the early 19th century was Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833), who went on to become one of the most revered Orthodox saints. The Optina Pustyn near Kozelsk used to be celebrated for its startsy (Schema-Archimandrite Moses, Schema-Hegumen Anthony, Hieroschemamonk Leonid, Hieroschemamonk Macarius, Hieroschemamonk Hilarion, Hieroschemamonk Ambrose, Hieroschemamonk Anatole (Zertsalov)). Such writers as Nikolay Gogol, Aleksey Khomyakov, Leo Tolstoy and Konstantin Leontyev sought advice from the elders of this monastery. They also inspired the figure of Zosima in Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov. A more modern example of a starets is Archimandrite John Krestiankin (1910–2006) of the Pskov Monastery of the Caves, who was popularly recognized as such by many Orthodox living in Russia.

Judaism

In Judaism, the Hebrew term for spiritual director differs among traditional communities. The verb Hashpa'ah is common in some communities though not all; the spiritual director called a mashpi'a occurs in the Chabad-Lubavitch community and also in the Jewish Renewal community. A mashgiach ruchani is the equivalent role among adherents of the Mussar tradition. The purpose of Hashpa'ah is to support the directee in their personal relationship with God, and to deepen that person's ability to find God's presence in ordinary life. Amongst Lubavitchers this draws on the literature and praxis of Hasidism as it is practiced according to Chabad standards, and to Jewish mystical tradition generally. Spiritual mentorship is customary in the Hasidic world, but not necessarily in the same way.

Sufism

In Sufism, the term used for spiritual master is murshid, Arabic for 'guide' or 'teacher'. A murshid is more than a spiritual director and is believed to be guiding the disciples based on his direct connectivity with the Divine. The murshid’s role is to spiritually guide and verbally instruct the disciple on the Sufi path after the disciple takes an oath of allegiance or Bay'ah (bai'ath) with him. The concept of Murshid Kamil Akmal (also known as Insan-e-Kamil) is significant in most tariqas. The doctrine states that from pre-existence till pre-eternity, there shall always remain a Qutb or a Universal Man upon the earth who would be the perfect manifestation of God and at the footsteps of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

See also

• Ho'oponopono
• Murshid
• Pir (Sufism)
• Spiritual Directors International

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

In the technical sense of the term, Spiritual Direction is that function of the sacred ministry by which the Church guides the faithful to the attainment of eternal happiness. It is part of the commission given to her in the words of Christ: "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations... teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt., xxviii, 19 sq.). She exercises this function both in her public teaching, whether in word or writing, and in the private guidance of souls according to their individual needs; but it is the private guidance that is generally understood by the term "spiritual direction".

I. In one way, the Church requires all her adult members to submit to such private direction, namely, in the Sacrament of Penance. For she entrusts to her priests in the confessional, not only the part of judge to absolve or retain the sins presently confessed, but also the part of a director of consciences. In the latter capacity he must instruct his penitents if ignorant of their duties, point out the wrong or the danger in their conduct, and suggest the proper means to be employed for amendment or improvement. The penitent, on his part, must submit to this guidance. He must also, in cases of serious doubt regarding the lawfulness of his action, ask the advice of his director. For a person who acts in a practical doubt, not knowing whether he is offending God or not, and yet consenting to do what he thinks to be morally wrong, thereby offends his Creator. Such consultation is the more necessary as no one is a good judge in his own cause: a business man is sometimes blind to the injustice of a tempting bargain, and passion often invents motives for unlawful indulgence.

II. Still more frequently is spiritual direction required in the lives of Christians who aim at the attainment of perfection (see PERFECTION). All religious are obliged to do so by their profession; and many of the faithful, married and unmarried, who live amidst worldly cares aspire to such perfection as is attainable in their states of life. This striving after Christian perfection means the cultivation of certain virtues and watchfulness against faults and spiritual dangers. The knowledge of this constitutes the science of asceticism. The spiritual director must be well versed in this difficult science, as his advice is very necessary for such souls. For, as Cassian writes, "by no vice does the devil draw a monk headlong and bring him to death sooner than by persuading him to neglect the counsel of the Elders and trust to his own judgment and determination" (Conf. of Abbot Moses).

III. Since, in teaching the Faith, the Holy Ghost speaks through the sovereign pontiff and the bishops of the Church, the work of the private spiritual director must never be at variance with this infallible guidance. Therefore the Church has condemned the doctrine of Molinos, who taught that directors are independent of the bishops, that the Church does not judge about secret matters, and that God and the director alone enter into the inner conscience (Denziger, Enchiridion, nos. 1152, 1153). Several of the most learned Fathers of the Church devoted much attention to spiritual direction, for instance, St. Jerome, who directed St. Paula and her daughter St. Eustochium; and some of them have left us learned treatises on ascetic theology. But while the hierarchy of the Church is Divinely appointed to guard the purity of faith and morals, the Holy Spirit, who "breatheth where he will; and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth" (John, iii, 8), has often chosen priests or religious, and even simple laymen and women, and filled them with supernatural wisdom in order to provide for the spiritual direction of others.

IV. Whoever the director be, he will find the principal means of progress towards perfection to consist in the exercise of prayer (q. v.) and mortification (q. v.). But upon the special processes of these two means, spiritual guides have been led by the Holy Spirit in various directions. Different is the type for the solitary in the desert, the cenobite in the community, for a St. Louis or a Blanche of Castile in a palace, St. Frances of Rome in her family, or a St. Zita in her kitchen, for contemplative and for active religious orders and congregations. Another marked difference in the direction of souls arises from the presence or absence of the mystical element in the life of the person to be directed (see MYSTICISM). Mysticism involves peculiar modes of action by which the Holy Ghost illumines a soul in ways which transcend the normal use of the reasoning powers. The spiritual director who has such persons in charge needs the soundest learning and consummate prudence. Here especially sad mistakes have been made by presumption and imprudent zeal, for men of distinction in the Church have gone astray in this matter.

V. Even in ordinary cases of spiritual direction in which no mysticism is involved, numerous errors must be guarded against; the following deserve special notice: (1) The false principles of the Jansenists, who demanded of their penitents an unattainable degree of purity of conscience before they allowed them to receive Holy Communion. Many priests, not members of the sect, were yet so far tainted with its severity as gradually to alienate large numbers of their penitents from the sacraments and consequently from the Church. (2) The condemned propositions summarized under the headings "De perfectione christianâ" in Denziger's "Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum" (Würzburg, 1900), page 485, which are largely the principles of Quietism. These are specimens: To obtain perfection a man ought to deaden all his faculties; he should take no vows, should avoid external work, ask God for nothing in particular, not seek sensible devotion, not study science, not consider rewards and punishments, not employ reasoning in prayer. (3) The errors and dangers pointed out in the Encyclical of Leo XIII, "Testem Benevolentiæ". In it the pope singles out for particular condemnation: "First, all external guidance is set aside for those souls which are striving after Christian perfection as being superfluous, or indeed not useful in any sense, the contention being that the Holy Spirit pours richer and more abundant graces into the soul than formerly; so that, without human intervention, He teaches and guides them by some hidden instinct of His own." In the same document warnings are given against inculcating an exaggerated esteem of the natural virtues, thus depreciating the supernatural ones; also against casting contempt on religious vows, "as if these were alien to the spirit of our times, in that they restrict the bounds of human liberty, and that they are more suitable to weak than to strong minds".

VI. An important document of Leo XIII bearing specifically on the direction of religious souls is the decree "Quemadmodum" of 1890. It forbids all religious superiors who are not priests "the practice of thoroughly inquiring into the state of their subjects' consciences, which is a thing reserved to the Sacrament of Penance". It also forbids them to refuse to their subjects an extraordinary confessor, especially in cases where the conscience of the persons so refused stands greatly in need of this privilege; as also "to take it on themselves to permit at their pleasure their subjects to approach the Holy Table, or even sometimes to forbid them Holy Communion altogether". The pope abrogates all constitutions, usages, and customs so far as they tend to the contrary; and absolutely forbids such superiors as are here spoken of to induce in any way their subjects to make to them any such manifestations of conscience. (See the decree "Quemadmodum", with explanations, in the American Ecclesiastical Review, March, 1893.).

VII. Catholic literature is rich in works of ascetic and mystical theology; of which we mention a few below. But it must be noticed that such works cannot be recommended for the use of all readers indiscriminately. The higher the spiritual perfection aimed at, especially when mysticism enters into the case, the more caution should be used in selecting and consulting the guide-books, and the more danger there is that the direction given in them may be misapplied. Spiritual direction is as much a matter for the personal supervision of an experienced living guide as is the practice of medicine; the latter deals with abnormal defects of the body, the former with the acquisition of uncommon perfection by the soul.

SCARAMELLI, Directorium Asceticum, or Guide to the Spiritual Life (Dublin, 1870); IDEM, Directorium Mysticum, or Divine Asceticism; GUILLORÉ, Manière de Conduire les Ames (Lyons and Paris, 1853); FABER, Growth in Holiness (Baltimore); LANCOGNE, Manifestation of Conscience (New York, 1892); SCHRAM, Institutiones Theologiae Mysticae; NEUMAYR, Idea Theologiae Asceticae, or Science of the Spiritual Life (London, 1876); IDEM, Higher Paths in the Spiritual Life (London); ST. TERESA, The Interior Castle (London, 1859); IDEM, Way of Perfection (London, 1860); ST. IGNATIUS, Spiritual Exercises (London, 1900); ST. FRANCIS OF SALES, The Devout Christian (New York); SCRUPOLI, The Spiritual Combat (London); CLARE, Science of the Spiritual Life (London, 1896); ST. LIGUORI, The Christian Virtues (New York); GROU, Manual of Interior Souls (London, 1905); LALLEMANT, Spiritual Doctrine (New York, 1884); LEHMKUHL, Theologia Moralis (Friburg, 1889); SCHIELER-HEUSER, Theory and Practice of the Confessional, Part III, sect. 2, The Office of the Confessor; DUPONT, Guide Spirituel (Paris, 1866); CARDINAL BONA, Traité du Discernement des Esprits (Tournai, 1840); LEWIS OF GRANADA, Sinner's Guide (Philadelphia, 1877); BELLECIUS, Solid Virtue (New York, 1882).

External links

North America

• Spiritual Directors International
• Spiritual Direction in California
• Spiritual Direction in Alberta
• Spiritual Direction in Calgary
• Spiritual Direction in Manitoba
• Spiritual Directors in British Columbia
• Tyndale Association of Spiritual Directors, Toronto, Ontario
• Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association

United Kingdom

• The Retreat Association, an organisation facilitating Christian spiritual directors in the United Kingdom
• London Centre for Spiritual Direction: an organisation that trains and supports spiritual directors, and promotes spiritual direction
• Ignatian Spirituality Course: a training course for spiritual directors in London, UK.

Australia

• Fullness of Life Centre (Inc.) provides spiritual direction, counselling and professional supervision. Services are available in-person and through secure video conferencing.
• Kardia Formation P/L provides spiritual direction, supervision and a formation program for spiritual directors.
• Jesuit College of Spirituality provides Ignatian programs of formation for spiritual directors, supervisors and leaders as a member of the University of Divinity, Melbourne.

Bibliography

• Spiritual Direction – New Advent (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia).

Classics

• Aelred of Rievaulx (2010) [1160-62]. Spiritual Friendship. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-87907-957-4.
• John Cassian (1894). The Conferences of John Cassian. Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
• Teresa of Avila. "Works of St. Teresa of Avila (Online)". Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
• Thomas Merton (1960). Spiritual Direction and Meditation. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-0412-0.
• Saint Francis de Sales (1885). Introduction to the Devout Life (online). Dublin: M. H. Gill and Sons.
• Saint Francis de Sales (1997) [1616]. Treatise on the Love of God. Translated by Henry Benedict Mackey. TAN Books. ISBN 0-89555-526-3.
• Saint Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal (1988). Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-2990-4.
• Samuel Rutherford (1891). Letters of Samuel Rutherford. London: Oliphants Ltd. Alt
• Louis de Blois (1900). Institutio Spiritualis: A Book of Spiritual instruction. St. Louis MO, USA.
• --do.-- (1900) A Book of Spiritual Instruction: Institutio spiritualis; translated from the Latin by Bertrand A. Wilberforce. London: Art and Book Company
• Auguste Saudreau (1907). The Degrees of the Spiritual Life. Translated by Bede Camm. London: R. T. Washbourne.

Later period

Later writings on spiritual direction (as per Top ten reading list for spiritual directors – January 19, 2013):

• Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1938). "The Three Ages of the Interior Life". Catholic Spiritual Teaching.
• Teresa Blythe (2018). Spiritual Direction 101: The Basics of Spiritual Guidance. Apocryphile Press, ISBN 978-1-947826-20-5
• "Perfect Spiritual Guide in Sufism". Archived from the original on 2015-09-20.
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1957). The Divine Milieu: An Essay on the Interior Life. Harper Torchbooks, The Cathedral Library, NY.
• Kenneth Leech (2001) [1977]. Soul Friend. Church Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8192-2539-9.
• Friedrich von Hügel (1928). Letters from Baron Friedrich von Hügel to a Niece. J. M. Dent & Sons.
• Adolphe Tanquerey (1932). The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Society of St. John the Evangelist, Desclée.
• Francis W. Vanderwall (1981). Spiritual direction: an invitation to abundant life. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-2399-5.
• William A. Barry (1982). The Practice of Spiritual Direction. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-86683-951-8.
• Margaret Guenther (1992). Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-56101-056-1.
• Charles Hugo Doyle (2011). Guidance In Spiritual Direction. CreateSpace Independent Pub. ISBN 978-1463597542.
• Francis Fernandez Carvajal (2012). Through Wind and Waves: On Being a Spiritual Guide. Scepter. ISBN 978-1594171666.
• Hughson, Shirley Carter (1952) The Spiritual Letters of Father Hughson of the Order of the Holy Cross. West Park, New York: Holy Cross Press; London: A. R. Mowbray, 1953