While therapy may consider one’s relationship with the Lord, it is not necessarily or fundamentally concerned with one’s walk with the Lord. Herein lies spiritual direction’s most fundamental difference from therapy. This help seeks an interactive and vital relationship with the Lord, and so the Lord is very much a part of the process of direction. Simply stated, direction is “help with the development of one’s relationship with God” (Barry and Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction). Direction commonly occurs on a monthly basis, though some may meet on a biweekly or even weekly basis.
Spiritual direction is the ongoing practice of a directee meeting regularly with a trained spiritual director. Here, the directee shares events and circumstances of one’s life since the last meeting as the spiritual director listens together with him or her for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Direction helps believers create a place for this abiding, where one can find peace, discernment and intimacy. We are to simply abide, to be attentive and responsive to Jesus’ leading and guidance. John 15 brings us to the most fundamental component of one’s relationship with Him. Remain in me, and I in you, and you will bear much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. All in all, spiritual direction provides an avenue for a relationship with God based on intimacy, trust and grace and helps one respond to Jesus’ words in John 15 to grow in their walk with the Lord. Still, more recently, some have looked at direction as a therapeutic approach.
The early Church Fathers focused on an examination of the heart, while others have focused on one’s outpouring of service to others. Since the Church began, various ways of deepening one’s faith in God have been in existence.
ONE SPIRIT RETREAT CENTER HOW TO
Spiritual Direction WHAT | FOR WHOM? | HOW TO START | COSTS
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