Read this post to learn about the beauty of the Spiritual Direction/Companioning relationship and how it can grow and benefit your spirit and your life! Contact Mims Driscoll at mimsdriscoll@gmail.com for inquiry about setting up an intake session or call 803-554-3552.
Do you know that you know?
Do you know that you can know?
Do you know that which you are already
engaged with?
Can you trust yourself?
Can you listen to your heart?
Can you hear the wisdom that already
resides inside you?
Can you see your magnificence?
Listen to your heart.
Beyond your beauty.
Sing your song.
When I think of all the modalities I
have taken part in, nothing even comes close to that of Spiritual
Direction. There are moments I sit back and smile as joy fills out
my being. Think of having a companion on the road with you. Someone
who listens to your unprocessed thoughts. Someone who hears that
which your heart aches to say. Someone who provides a safe, warm
space for you to sit with the Holy. Someone who cultivates an
atmosphere for and with you that brings presence deeper into the
rooms of your life.
Spiritual direction is much more like
that companion. The word direction is deceptive. The “director”
listens with not just physical ears, but hears with the heart. The
“director” mirrors back to you that which you have already said,
so you can hear your own words. The “director” is a trusted
guest, sitting with you as you sit with the source of life and
expression of Spirit that you walk with in your life.
Being a spiritual director and having a
spiritual director in my life has opened up pathways of hope and
healing. Cultivating and nurturing space and time for another
becomes a gift that transcends natural plains and yet empowers a
grounding into life and space and time unlike any other “ministry”
I have partaken in.
What is the process of spiritual
direction?
- I love when spiritual direction is talked about more as spiritual guidance or spiritual friendship. It is an ongoing relationship in which one person (the directee), hungry and desirous of being attentive to his or her own spiritual life, meets with another person (the director) on a regular basis (approximately once or twice a month), specifically for the purpose of becoming more attuned to Spirit's Presence in order to respond more fully to that Presence in all of life.
- The primary focus of the session is the directee's relationship with Spirit as it is reflected and challenged by all aspects of that person's life. Believing in a holistic approach that life, day in and day out, the practical, nitty gritty aspects of life are very spiritual. So that spiritual direction, while being about prayer and helpful practices, touches all aspects of ones life.
- The directee assumes responsibility for his or her life with Spirit. That me say that again. This is about you! You taking the responsibility to say that you are hungry spiritually and want to partake in learning how to feed your life, your spirit, your soul! This means that the person coming for direction is trying to be serious about some form of intentional prayer and reflection on the movements of God in everyday life and prayer. During the meeting of which is normally one hour, director and directee seek to enter a prayerful atmosphere where together they can be attentive to the Holy Spirit who is in fact the Real Director.
- The director may question, challenge, suggest, support, as seems called for by the Spirit, but it is the directee’s prayerful openness to the Sprit that determines whatever insights are uncovered or the course of action that is to be taken. It is assumed that the directee has begun a journey with Spirit long before he or she comes into direction. Also, this intentional journey will continue long after leaving a particular director. The director is only a facilitator in the process. The directee must claim the journey.
To conclude for now, I will use a Henri Nouwen quote: “A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the
willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full
in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”
In spiritual direction we will wait together upon the presence of Spirit and allow the light and essence of the Holy to infiltrate your body, soul and spirit.
Contact Mims Driscoll at mimsdriscoll@gmail.com for inquiry about
setting up an intake session or call 803-554-3552.
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