WHAT IS SPIRITUAL DIRECTION? 

Spiritual direction is concerned with helping a person directly with his or her relationship with God.

1. Spiritual direction focuses on what happens when a person listens to and responds to a self-communicating God.

2. Religious experience is the focus of spiritual direction.

Spiritual direction is the help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God's personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship.

1. The focus is religious experience, not ideas.  
 
2. The experience is not an isolated event, but an expression of the ongoing personal relationship God has established with each one of us.

3. The spiritual director is most interested in what happens when a person consciously puts himself/herself into the presence of God, i.e., in prayer

William A. Barry, S.J., and William J. Connolly, S.J., The Practice of Spiritual Direction
(Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1982)

"Spiritual Direction is a privileged time and place to reflect with another about my relationship with God.  The focus of Spiritual Direction is my life with God as it is lived out in all my experiences.  Ultimately, spiritual direction is the process of coming home to my deepest self."

"All of my life is material for spiritual direction as I seek to become more aware of God's presence in my life.  The "agenda" is what the "directee" bring and that will include prayer, images of God, finding the sacred, questions of faith, concerns about the Church, and also my relationship with others, what worries me, grieves me, frightens me, or gives me cause for joy and celebration.  The director helps me to listen to my life with the care that it deserves."

"Spiritual direction, through practiced in the Church for centuries, is increasingly sought by people in contemporary society, who are desirous of a deeper engagement with God and someone to companion them in that search.  The tradition has consistently defined the practice of Spiritual Direction as an art that recognizes the Holy Spirit as the true director.  The human director needs spiritual training, knowledge of the religious heritage of the Christian tradition and of human development, and must demonstrate recognized gifts for this ministry.  The director and is not someone who tells another what to do or what direction they should pursue.  The spiritual director is primarily concerned with helping the "directee" relate to God in every aspect of life and is not a substitute for a marriage counselor, psychological counselor, or other professional therapist."

Campion Renewal Center, Weston, Massachusetts