Anne Alcock - Texts and Tips for Spiritual Directors and for Personal Prayer

There is something unique about this type of relationship that requires a deep level of commitment of the spiritual director to the process of enabling the encounter between God and the directee to come alive in the session. There has to be a depth of commitment to the directee and a fundamental belief that God desires to reveal Godself to everyone. It is through grace that directors are able to achieve this balance. The ministry of spiritual direction is a charism.

THE QUESTIONS

Spiritual Direction or Spiritual Accompaniment?
Is there a difference?

Spiritual direction is the traditional term for what is now more often called spiritual accompaniment (Similarly, a Directed Retreat is now more often called an Individually Guided Retreat IGR). Centuries back, spiritual direction meant placing oneself in docility, if not actual obedience, under the direction of a cleric or monk (cf. St Teresa of Avila, who spoke regularly with, and of, her spiritual directors). Anchorites and Abesses, also sometimes took on the role of directing. This has now broadened to include many religious and lay persons who feel called to the work of spiritual accompaniment.

If there is a subtle inner shift beyond the mere change of name, it is more overtly about submission to the Direction of God within the persons life as mutually interpreted, rather an unquestioning submission to a director who tells his directee what to do. Hence the emphasis is less about giving advice or giving a talk than listening and attending to the signs of Spirits leading, within the accompanee, as a whole person, rather than only as a soul.

Grounded in the churchs spiritual tradition, the director/accompanier will, as always, be committed to developing their own personal spiritual life and working with their own life-struggles. From that basis and with training, she/he will be able and willing to accommodate psychological differences as well as a persons individual approach to God and prayer. Accompaniment may include suggestions, possible interpretations, respectful guidance if required, and the sharing of useful spiritual resources, but all within that context of mutual exploration and humble listening-out for Gods revealed Presence, Message and Direction, in the persons life.

What do I need to become a spiritual director?
A phrase that comes to mind is a sense of call, which implies something rather different from simply a career option. There may be a background in spirituality, theology, or counselling, and one essential is the experience of being in spiritual direction, and of course maintaining an ongoing personal relationship with God.

Does the word holistic fit in with being a spiritual director, or is it mostly scripture?
The word holistic is what we now understand as lived experience body, mind and spirit. Ways of being responsive to, and attentive to the God-in-all-things, others and oneself is what the spiritual life is about. We will experience Gods presence in many ways, through nature, movement, dance, poetry, art, companionship, intimacy; in the sacred writings of our tradition, and in liturgies and ritual. Increasingly many Christians are also reading the wisdom-words of other religious traditions. In this book, the emphasis is on texts from the Judeo-Christian tradition, Old and New Testaments, as a template against which we can find our own life experience, and pray and act out of that. And to be authentic, that living out will always be holistic.