Spiritual direction is the ministry of “sacred listening,” which creates a safe space for a person to explore their spiritual journey. A director acts as a faithful companion who prayerfully accompanies the directee in noticing and responding to the movements and invitations of the Holy Spirit. It is a process of growing in attentiveness to God’s presence in the midst of everyday life.
Got Your ‘Spiritual Director’ Yet?
“The roots of a resurgent practice, plus 14 books for further study”
Christian counselor and popular author Larry Crabb took the trouble to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. But now he believes that in today’s church, therapy should be replaced by another, more ancient practice—“spiritual direction.”
This is one of the classical Christian spiritual disciplines Crabb and others from a wide variety of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox backgrounds are examining and recommending anew in a biannual journal, Conversations: A Forum for Authentic Transformation, just launched this Spring.
Crabb is not the only modern Protestant digging into this historical mode of spiritual growth. Jeannette Bakke, author of Holy Invitations: Exploring Spiritual Direction, noted that evangelicals are listening for God in ways that differ from standard understandings of discipleship, exploring disciplines like silence, solitude, and discernment.
What is spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction is a voluntary relationship between a person who seeks to grow in the Christian life and a director. The latter is not a counselor or therapist. Rather, he or she is a mature Christian who helps the directee both to discern what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying and to act on that discernment, drawing nearer to God in Christ.
The focus is on intimacy with God, not on the solving of clinically identified psychological problems. The director helps directees identify ways they have sought satisfaction from sources other than God, leading them to hear the Holy Spirit—the “real spiritual director.”
How did it develop in the church?
Spiritual direction has a long place in Christian History, seen in the New Testament with Jesus and his disciples, or Paul and Timothy. John Cassian (ca. 350-435) provided some of the earliest recorded guidance, influenced by Egyptian desert ascetics. By the end of the seventh century, the practice was firmly associated with monasticism.
The practice spread rapidly beyond monastery walls in 1216 with the Dominicans and owes its greatest modern debt to Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Jesuits, who developed the "Spiritual Exercises." Today, even Protestants who were historically suspicious are returning to this practice as a means of deeper spiritual growth.
Recommended Reading: 14 Masters at Work
Eugene Peterson offers a broad definition of spiritual direction as "spiritual friendship" and suggests these 14 essential works:
- Letters to a Niece – Frederick von Hugel
- Spiritual Friendship – Aelred of Rievaulx
- Introduction to the Devout Life – Francis de Sales
- Letters – Samuel Rutherford
- Soul Friend – Kenneth Leech
- Spiritual Direction – Martin Thornton
- Spiritual Direction and Meditation – Thomas Merton
- The Divine Milieu – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
- Care of Mind / Care of Spirit – Gerald May
- Writings on Spiritual Direction – Jerome Heufelder
- An Invitation to Abundant Life – Francis W. Vanderwall
- Together in Solitude – Douglas V. Steere
- On Presence – Ralph Harper
- Letters of Spiritual Counsel – Martin Luther