In the chaos of life, it can be impossible to hear the still small voice of the Spirit. But God is still speaking. That is where Spiritual Direction comes in! Through calls, via zoom or phone, we intentionally set aside time to listen to God’s work in your life.
Attending to God’s Work
God is always moving and always working – in us, in the world, in the Church. The Spirit is on the move. However, our lives are often to hectic and chaotic to notice what God is doing. In some seasons, it is easier to see God at work than others. But in every season, Spiritual Direction is about carving out time to attend to God’s work in our lives and the world around us. Life is a maelstrom, and Spiritual Direction is a time and place to intentionally listen to the Spirit and examine the work God has already been doing.
Ignatian Style
Maybe that’s easier said than done, but our ancestors in faith also struggled with preoccupied, chaotic lives. Life is so distracting. However, God has equipped us with the innate desire and tools to return to Him, and His Spirit is always with us. The Ignatian tradition has many extremely practical ways to harness that, through prayer, meditation on Scripture, and contemplation. Imagination is key to this tradition: holds space, demands space, even in a busy day, and is one of the many ways God meets us in this world.
There are so many ways to pray, such as
- Colloquy, the intimate conversation between God and us, when we speak to the Lord as a friend.
- Centering prayer, where we sit in silence and trust that God is moving and working.
- Dialogue journaling, where we use our imaginations to reach for the Lord
- Lectio Divina, where we pray through Scripture and trust the Spirit to highlight certain words and phrases
- Composition of place, where we expect the Spirit to help us imagine concrete details of a scene in Scripture, that the Lord might speak to us through that Scripture in a new way
- The Examine, where we reflect on our loves and preoccupations as well as God’s movement in our days
- Physical prayers, such as praying through labyrinths as a mini-pilgrimage during the maelstrom of life
I will also introduce resources, such as books, the tools for the daily office, and other freely available helps (such as Pray as You Go) to support daily discernment and recentering of our disordered loves. Discernment is life with God, who is our foundation, the center around which all other goods gravitate.
Grounded in Tradition
God has been at work in the world, through the Church, for over 2,000 years. In Scripture, we already have the story of the first spread of the Church to Africa and Europe, but God sent His people to China as early as 635, to India long before that. While we are not our ancestors in faith, and are not called to be them, I firmly believe in the Body of Christ, a body that stretches across the world and across time. We are in the same body that the apostles were, in the same body that Augustine was, in the same body as millions of believers whose names history has forgotten but who prayed, followed God, and returned home to Him.
While Spiritual Direction is not a theology or history class, it is informed by this large and great tradition, and the practices and beliefs of Christians across the world and across space and time. We join Christians across the world and across time in the work of God’s Kingdom on Earth, in wrestling with Scripture, in basking in His love.
God’s work is not bounded by denominational lines. I love to work with clients of all denominational backgrounds, as well as those seeking to know more about Christ 😊
