“Before every session I take a moment to remember my humanity. There is no experience that this person has that I cannot share with him, no fear that I cannot understand, no suffering that I cannot care about, because I too am human.
Tag: Spiritual direction
Entering your suffering with you – the opportunity of spiritual direction
“The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.” One of the things that I love most about offering spiritual direction and companioning is that there is so much more room for responding to the movements of Spirit and less “protocol” for staying removed from people’s pain.
On speaking our truth in spiritual direction
We must learn to speak according to our own inner truth, as far as we can perceive it…. This gives us a clue to what the director is really seeking to find out from us… The director wants to know our inmost self, our real self. He wants to know us not as we are in the eyes of men, or even as we are in our own eyes, but as we are in the eyes of God.
Going the final mile and the danger of self-direction
Nothing is more harmful than self-direction, nothing more fatal… I never allowed myself to follow my thought without asking advice” (Instructions of Dorotheus of Gaza)
How poignant this is for our times. How often it is that we seek to find out own way, make our own decisions… “my spiritual journey is my own personal thing and I keep it to myself mostly.” My friends, as good as this sounds, it is not the way to move forward in the spiritual life. We must not separate ourselves from the saints, the fathers and the mothers, that have come before us, whatever religion they may be. They will always tell us of the need for a director, a spiritual companion, a confessor, a community.
My heart and calling to spiritual direction
Spiritual direction has a bit of a negative connotation in our independent and “don’t-step-on-my-toes-or-tell-me-what-to-do” culture. It has, however, been an accepted and necessary component to the spiritual journey within…… Read more “My heart and calling to spiritual direction”
Nathan Bettger | Oshkosh, WI 