Is Spiritual Direction for you?

 

 I once went to a retreat called “Making a Difference”.  What I remember about that retreat was the process the leaders led us through to answer the question: “What is your ministry?”  Maybe a strange question to some of the participants, as there were nuns, pastors and other professionals present, and you would assume they all knew very well what their “ministry” was. 

In the workshop we did a lot of individual work and writing, centering prayer, discussion in the whole group and conversations with and listening to others.  

The facilitator kept peeling away the layers of immediate responses, getting to the core of who are you and how is your ministry playing out in real life, in essence looking at what am I doing in and with my life.   The questions weren’t “what is your job?”; what is your professional training?  what service projects are you involved in?”, “what are your skills?”, although these are all aspects that make up who we are.

 I had already in worked in a number of situations in war zones and natural disasters and with people living in poverty in many countries. I would say things like, I am a social worker; I am pretty good at training people and organizing, I do international development work with poor communities, I am a Christian; all which can be considered ministries or jobs of service to others.

The idea was to come up with an “I am” statement related to ministry, and after a couple of days, the answer I came to was “I am a spiritual director (or a spiritual companion).  It was both what I wanted to be and that which I believed God was calling me to at that time.  It seemed to be the “right fit”.

After that retreat I enrolled in a training program in group Spiritual Direction at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Maryland.   I had a mentor for a couple of years, I facilitated a Spiritual Direction process with a small group of local pastors, and as a requirement of the program met with a Spiritual Director, a Franciscan sister, for about three years.  During that time, I worked as and enjoyed the role of Spiritual Director in several situations, both with individuals and groups, but never as a job - it was a ministry alongside of my regular work that I think contributed to making my "day job" more focused.  Over the last number of years, I have not done anything formal as a spiritual director, but I still feel what I learned through spiritual direction is at the center of my identity and my sense of ministry. 

If you are curious about spiritual direction, especially in the contemplative Christian Tradition, you can find many good resources on the internet.  You could start by looking at the website of the Shelem Institute, Shalem Institute / Shalem Institute

Or if you want, I can also respond to your questions and comments.  You can email me at jaaker2@yahoo.com, or comment below.