The Ministry of Spiritual Direction - Essay Example

Religion and Theology 28th Feb., The Ministry of Spiritual Direction Lesson 10 Theological Reflection based on Chapter II of William Barry’s book and my Own Experiences Spiritual direction should be centred on and based on religious experience. Contrary to the traditional or classical spiritual direction methods, spiritual direction should not be based on teaching or lecturing the spiritual directee on how to relate with God through conforming to the will and to the teachings of God. The classical spiritual direction method assumes that it is possible to teach and to direct a person on how to relate with God. Contrary to this view, however, experience has shown that the best way to help people to relate better with God is to help them to discover God in their own experiences, i.e. to pay attention to their own religious experiences and to respond accordingly to what God communicates to them in their own personal experiences. In my own experiences, I have realized that good spiritual direction should be based on religious experience. Before I was helped by my spiritual director to listen to the voice of God through my own experiences, I was a practising member of the apostolic church, but as a matter of fact, I did not have a live and a vibrant relationship with my God. This is because, although, I was a practising Christian and I used to attend the church regularly to pray, I however, felt aloof and alienated from God. I had expressed this problem to my previous spiritual directors, but my spiritual directors kept on lecturing me on how I should abandon sin, be more prayerful, and align my life to the will of God. I had tried in vain to adhere to the advice of my spiritual directors. Later, I choose another spiritual director who started directing me to engage in silent and contemplative prayers as a way of listening to God as He communicated to me. My new spiritual director also advised me to take time each day at least 15 minutes per day, to reflect on my personal experiences and to focus on the religious dimensions of those experiences, i.e. to pay attention to how God was communicating to me through those daily experiences. Through this new method of spiritual direction, I was able to discern, in a very clear manner, how God was constantly communicating with me. Through the silent prayers and reflections, I was also able to respond to God as He communicated with me, and to express my feelings, my hopes, my fears, my frustrations, and my gratitude to him. Ultimately, my prayer life improved substantially and my relationship with God became stronger and stronger. This experience, therefore, made me to believe that the best form of spiritual direction should be based on personal religious experiences. For this reason, therefore, spiritual directors should view their roles as merely helping their directees to focus and to pay attention to God as He speaks to them through the Scriptures, through nature (the beauty of nature), or through their personal daily experiences. Aumann had the same conception of spiritual direction when he defines spiritual direction as “the art of leading sould progressively from the beginning of spiritual life to the height of spiritual perfection” (380). Spiritual directors should, therefore, help the spiritual directees to listen to God, through reflection and contemplative prayer, and to respond to God accordingly. This kind of spiritual direction will definitely lead to a strengthened relationship between the person directed and his/her God. This form of spiritual direction is based on the fact that a constant communication is a pre-requisite for the growth and strengthening of a relationship. As William Barry notes, in spiritual directions, the spiritual director should believe and make the directee believe that God actually communicates explicitly with His people (Barry, 17). In this light, therefore, the role of a spiritual director should be viewed as guiding the spiritual directee in discerning the voice of God as He communicates with him/her, and responding appropriately to God. For this reason, therefore, spiritual direction is not a teaching or a lecture about God. Most of the challenges in spiritual direction arise because some spiritual directors think that their role is to help the spiritual directees to establish a relationship with God, and to overcome the myriad of existential problems that people have. Contrary to this view, however, the main aim of spiritual direction is not to give solutions to the many existential problems that people have, but rather to guide people into listening to God as He explicitly communicates with them, and to respond positively to that communication, thus establishing a strong relationship with God. Once the spiritual directee and God have a strong and vibrant relationship, God then would help the spiritual directee to overcome their existential problems. In my own experience, I have realized that a spiritual direction that is aimed at instructing the spiritual directee on how to overcome the existential problems that they are experiencing doesn’t achieve much. Many of my friends have actually confessed to me that most of the pieces of advice given by their spiritual directors on how to overcome the various challenges of life do not work. The reason for this fact is that, in spiritual direction, what most spiritual directees are actually yearning for is a strong and vibrant relationship with God. The various existential problems expressed by those who seek spiritual direction is actually a sign of lack of a weak relationship between the spiritual directee and God. For this reason, therefore, the spiritual director should listen carefully to what his/her spiritual directee is telling him/her, and then, on then help the directee to discern from his/her own experiences the voice of God in his/her life, and to respond appropriately to that voice, so as to foster his/her relationship with God. For this reason, therefore, my own experiences have taught me that a fruitful spiritual direction should be based on the religious experience of the spiritual directee. A Summary of an Interview that I carried out on Mr Patrick Brown, a member of Charismatic Movement, who has been involved in Spiritual Direction for Six Years Mr Patrick is a lay man, but a devoted member of Charismatic movement. The following is a summary of the interview that I carried out on him about Spiritual Direction. Mr Brown’s recognition of a call to the ministry of spiritual direction In response to the question of how he recognized a calling to the ministry of spiritual direction, Mr Brow said that recognising his call to the ministry of spiritual direction was a long spiritual journey. He said that it was through listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in his heart for a long time that he came to realize that the ministry of spiritual direction was actually his calling in life; Mr. Brown said that he loves the work of spiritual direction so much and he is grateful to God for the calling to the ministry of spiritual direction. Brief Description of the role of spiritual director In response to the question of how he views himself as a spiritual director, Mr. Brown said that he views himself as a spiritual companion to his spiritual directees. Mr. Brown said that he accompanies his spiritual directees, through the graces given to him by God, to discern the will of God in their lives. The main Reason why People Seek Spiritual Direction In response to the question why people seek spiritual direction, Mr. Brown said that, among other reasons, the main reason why people seek spiritual direction is that they feel incomplete and unsatisfied in life, despite the enormous worldly success that they might have; for Mr. Brown, people seek spiritual direction because they seek something that only God can give. Markers of Spiritual Growth In response to the question of what markers he looks for in the spiritual growth of his spiritual directees, Mr. Brown said that the most important marker that he looks for is a sign that the relationship between his spiritual directee and his/her God is improving. Also, Mr. Brown said that he looks for a sign that his spiritual directee is listening to God more attentively through his/her personal religious experiences. Keeping the Relationship between the directee and his/her God balanced In an answer to the question of how he keeps the relationship between his spiritual directee and his/her God balanced, Mr. Brown said that, in order to ensure that the relationship between his spiritual directee and his/her God is balanced, he encourages his spiritual directees to not only talk to God through prayers, but also to listen to Him attentively and to respond to Him accordingly. The most influential Spiritual Master In response to the question of which spiritual director had influenced him the most in his spiritual direction work, Mr. Brown said that St. Ignatius of Loyola is the spiritual master who had influenced him the most in his work as spiritual director. This is because, according to Mr. Brown, the Ignatian approach to spiritual direction is aimed at helping the spiritual directee to discern God in his/her own experiences and, also, through contemplate prayer. Mr. Brown said that he loves the Ignatian approach to spiritual direction; Mr. Brown also said that he believes that the Ignatian approach to spiritual direction is the best approach to spiritual direction. Lesson 11 Vocabulary Exercise Contemplation: Contemplation refers to a form of pray in which the person praying concentrates all his/her attention on God; in contemplative prayer, the person praying focuses all his/her attention on the communication or the conversation he/she is engaged in with God. Transcendence: Transcendence refers to a spiritual experience that is beyond and nothing like the sensual bodily experiences; transcendence is a personal experience of God. God’s self-revelation: God’s self-revelation refers to the revelation that God makes about himself to a person. God’s self-revelation to an individual enables the individual to have a personal experience of God. Discernment: Discernment refers to the process through which a believer discovers, through prayer, reflection, and spiritual direction, the will of God in his/her life. Prayer: Prayer refers to a personal communication with God. There are many forms of prayer like the reflective prayer and the contemplative prayer. Spiritual Growth: Spiritual growth refers to the positive improvements that one makes in his/her relationship with God. Reaction to my list on how I turned my mind to God in light of what I have learnt about spiritual direction. In my list of how I turned my minds to God, I turned my minds to God in a church while praying alone. It was actually Saturday in the afternoon and I was praying alone in the church. In this experience I experienced the presence of God in a powerful way and I was filled with God’s graces. A reflection on the experience shows that constant communication with God through prayer is a pre-requisite of growth in spiritual life. The events that preceded this experience actually reveal that constant communication with God is a pre-requisite of spiritual growth. For the seven days that I had kept a list of when, where and how I turned my minds to God, it was actually on the fifth day that I experienced the presence of God in a powerful way. This fact can be attributed to the fact that it was on the fifth day that I concentrated all my attention on the communication that I had with God. On the first day, I tried to engage in contemplative prayer in my house, but there were a lot of distractions and for that reason my communication with God wasn’t so intense and intimate. On the second day, I tried to engage in contemplative prayer in my bed-room before retiring to bed, but I was too tired and sleepy and for that reason I wasn’t able to communicate with God well. On the third day, I tried to engage in a contemplative prayer, but my attention was divided because it was getting late and I really wanted to wake up so as not to be late for school. On the fourth day, I went to church to pray but, unfortunately, my minds wandered as I prayed and for that reason I was not able to pray well. It was actually on the fifth day, while praying in the church, that I finally managed to engage in a contemplative prayer that radically changed my relationship with God. On the fifth day, I started my prayers by asking God to guide me in the prayer and to help me to concentrate all my attention on him as I prayed. God actually heard my prayer and helped me to communicate with Him in an intimate way. The experience of the fifth day taught me that, although we need to put our efforts in trying to pray well, it is the Holy Spirit, however, who will ultimately help us to engage in real contemplative prayers. This is because, despite making an effort to engage in contemplative prayer, it was only after asking God’s help that I was able to communicate with God in an intimate way. Theological Reflection on a personal experience in spiritual growth Although I was born and raised up as an apostolic church Christian, my faith in God and my relationship with God was quite weak until when I had a personal experience of God that radically changed my relationship with God. The experience happened after I started going for spiritual direction. The experience actually happened after I changed my spiritual directors for three times. It was my fourth spiritual director who guided me into being able to listen to God’s voice in my life more intently and to communicate with Him with faith and trust in him. In the spiritual direction that led to a radical change in my spiritual life. My spiritual director guided me into reflecting on my own daily experiences of life, so as to be able to discern how God was communicating with me. My spiritual director also guided me into engaging in a contemplative prayer as a way of communicating with God in a more intimate way. After putting into practice the advice of my spiritual director, I had one experience that radically changed my relationship with God. It was actually late in the afternoon and I was in the church praying. As I was praying, I concentrated all my attention in my communication with God. After some time in the prayer, I had a real personal experience of God that marked a significant point in the growth of my spiritual life. In the personal spiritual experience, I really experienced the presence of God in a very powerful way; I was completely overwhelmed with God’s presence. The experience actually strengthened my faith in God and made me to commit myself more in God and in prayers. Works Cited Aumann, Jordan. Spiritual Theology. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1980. Print. Barry, William, and Connolly, William J: The Practice of Spiritual Direction. New York: Harper One, 2012. Print. Read More