What is Spiritual Direction?
From the Desk of Iela Galiano-Williams
What is spiritual direction? This is a question I have been asked many times, often after someone asked what my parents did for a living.
As a kid, I used to say it is like spiritual counseling, but as I have grown older & become a spiritual director myself, my answer has continued to evolve.
So, what is spiritual direction?
Well, to really answer that question is to understand that spiritual direction is an experience. An experience of the presence of God in the company of a fellow believer & like most experiences, it can be hard to describe with just words.
During my senior year of college, I had the privilege of completing a live-in internship for 3 months with a Christian environmental center in British Columbia, Canada called A Rocha. While there, they shared with us this quote,
“We care for only what we love. We love only what we know. We truly know only what we experience.” – Steven Bouma-Prediger
This quote is well suited to creation care, but I believe it is also well suited to soul care & our relationship with God. In order to know & love God, we must have spaces where we can experience God’s love for us.
I believe spiritual direction is one of these spaces. Spiritual direction is an experience that leads to a deeper knowledge of God, which leads to love for God, leading to a desire to care for & foster that relationship. It is a place where we can cast off any judgement or preconceived notions & move from a head knowledge of God to a heart knowledge.
So, what is wrong with my answer as a kid that spiritual direction is like spiritual counseling? Can’t we experience God in counseling or therapy? Absolutely, & I am even currently in school to become a marriage & family therapist, yet spiritual direction is unique in that it focuses completely on the voice & presence of God.
Spiritual direction is a place where God’s voice is at the center as the director & directee enter into a conversation with God. The directee gets to set the agenda & simply have a place to voice their thoughts, feelings, doubts, joys, etc. surrounding life & faith. Spiritual Direction is a place to just be as God sets the pace. There is no goal or specific agenda, except to come as you are & journey at the pace of grace.
Our desire for a directee is to experience, & be transformed by, God’s loving presence with & for you. We seek to foster a conscious relationship between you & God as we help you listen to & discern your voice & the voice of God in your life.
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