What is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual direction is an ancient practice in which one person helps another to listen for the voice of God in his or her life. The first known spiritual directors were the desert fathers and mothers, the fourth century hermits often considered the first Christian monastics who lived in the Near Eastern desert and helped each other as they tried to live Jesus’s teachings. Spiritual direction has been a part of the Catholic and Anglican traditions for many centuries, but is now coming into more widespread, ecumenical use.

Spiritual directors generally meet regularly, usually monthly, with their directees. The meetings focus on the spiritual experience of the directee, and give the directee an opportunity to tell his or her spiritual story. In spite of their names, spiritual directors are not usually very directive; they do not press their own agendas and their focus is not on giving advice. Through prayer and contemplative listening, they try to help the directee listen to and experience the divine.

I am no longer working one-on-one as a spiritual director, but I spent twenty years specializing in working with people who are uncomfortable with institutional religion or who are affiliated with more than one faith tradition or no faith tradition. Often such people are quite isolated; even if they are involved in a faith community, they may feel quite alienated there, hovering on the margins. As they told their spiritual stories, we listened together for where they were being led by God. We also looked together at their images of God and the holy. Often we discovered ways in which their images of God corresponded to their alienation from communities. For example, they might be standing aloof from a judgmental God, afraid of an angry God, or hesitant to believe in God at all yet desperately longing for God. As this exploration process unfolded, often they found themselves more able to enter into some kind of community. We also looked at ways in which they might be able to develop a more regular spiritual practice if they didn’t have one. Where in their lives were they most likely to experience God or their own inner voice? In sitting quietly, in looking at art, in listening to music, in movement, in nature, in church? We talked about how to expand these parts of their lives where they were in touch with what was most meaningful to them. As they spoke, they often realized that they knew where they were being led. Their next step arose from deep within them, and we heard it together in our contemplative listening.

It is often very challenging to find a good spiritual director and the first, most important step is prayer. You might try asking a pastor, meditation, or spiritual friend if they know any.

For information on how to find a spiritual director, go to Spiritual Directors International.

My friend and colleague David Frenette, author of The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God, offers spiritual direction to Christian contemplatives by phone, Zoom or Skype. Contact him here.

Spiritual direction in groups can also be a very powerful experience. For spiritual direction work in groups, I recommend the Shalem method, developed by Rose Mary Dougherty.

I have also practiced spiritual direction by video, which can work well for both groups and individuals.

What is Spiritual Direction?

Suggested reading on Individual Spiritual Direction:

Suggested reading on Group Spiritual Direction: