1. Often referred to as therapy for the soul,

   Spiritual Direction welcomes you to explore, discover and share ways in which you can recognize the foundational values within your life, while also holding friendship with God in the center.

2. A helpful way to understand what happens in spiritual direction is to imagine that there are “3 chairs” within a room:  the companion (Spiritual Director) who listens, the one sharing (Directee) and the Holy Spirit who guides throughout the conversation. It is a place held for you to feel a freedom to share in many forms - including honesty, vulnerability, healing and growth. Having trust and confidence in knowing that the Holy Spirit is guiding within the conversation makes this time different than cognitive or talk therapy. It is a place that incorporates the wholeness of being human: mind, body, spirit and all things of mystery.

3. Personal principles, ideals, or beliefs serve you as an internal guiding compass for your actions, decisions, and priorities. They represent what you deem important, desirable, and worthy of your time and attention, influencing how you interact with the world and the goals you pursue to live a meaningful life. Purpose within moments is not black or white. It is within the grey, the stirring of many different feelings, perceptions, ideas, experiences and more that is brought into conversation with God while highlighting your values.

4. Spiritual direction continuously invites all your feelings from the past and present to be understood as guiding “teachers” and welcomes the imagination to reflect on behalf of the future. 

5. Your connection with God is consistent — even in times that you may not be open to recognizing it. Experiences shift ongoing conversations into stages of change and growth. Your life creates ongoing opportunities for you to know God. Life can feel like a constant dance – the styles of movement shift and the rhythm invites moments that provoke different direction and intuitive feelings. These feelings guide you into a moment to rest and converse with God. You may get stuck in a moment or stage until you realize the best way to respond or react. Spiritual direction empowers you into a deeper contemplative and discerning practice which holds the partnership with God at the center. The director’s role is to guide you through your discoveries.

6. Spiritual direction also welcomes you to share and connect with the visible, as well as the invisible. Your contemplative moments may grow in respect to being recognized as a place for continued dialogue with God. The mysteries stretch to become timely revelations of healing and discovery paired with a new pattern of seeking. This way of seeing and experiencing takes much practice and patience as God unfolds revelations.

7. Examples of questions that may be evoked during spiritual direction can include:

   What is it that you yearn for?

   Can you describe what God looks like to you?

   What is your prayerful time like?

   What feelings arise within you when you are in a specific moment?

   Where do you go for comfort and peace when you are feeling emotionally challenged?

8. One of the greatest gifts I (Mary) have received during my ongoing contemplative practices partnered with spiritual direction is the understanding that each one of us is uniquely nurtured and transformed. That a life journey is filled with personalized experiences that molds one to have deep longings and wounds that are continuously surfacing to guide through growth and transformation and to have a confidence to no longer seek answers through others in regards to a soul’s longing, rather to respect her or his individual invitations and gifts as time unfolds through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

9. Franciscan friar and spiritual writer Richard Rohr shares, “One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway.”  The underlying, ancient wisdoms of the Bible continue to encourage modern humanity to seek and discover the grace, love and beauty of a God yearning for open connection - including with you.
   

10. Jesus was a Spiritual Director. In what ways do you recognize the Holy Spirit guiding you in your life, as the Spirit was present with Jesus?

Invitation: Will you consider spiritual direction for yourself to explore ways in which you recognize the foundational values within your life, while also holding friendship with God in the center?

You can also visit On Spiritual Direction for the original post through Mercy by the Sea Retreat and Conference Center.

“God is never a set of concepts to be understood but a relationship to encounter.” ~Christine Valters Paintner

People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. They sense they are looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever is going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is, what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences? ~M. Night Shyamalan