Preparing for Spiritual Direction

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yellow8yellowM

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I have been going to Spiritual Direction for about 6 months now and I often have little to say or to ask and I always end up talking about marriage problems. I don’t think this is what spiritual direction is for. Am I wrong?

Does anybody have advice on how to prepare for a spiritual direction session?
Does anybody have any recommended websites or books to help with this?

Thank you.
 
First of all does your director offer you suggestions for spiritual reading or ask you to reflect on things? If he or she does then you should discuss the insights you received. Do you journal? I find that reviewing my journals helps me to prepare. Do you pray before you go for direction? I spend time in prayer before so that my director and I are both open to the Holy Spirit. If your director does not lead you into discussing your prayer life and your spiritual life then perhaps the director is not directing you well.

There was a time when I complained to my director about something each time I saw him but he would always redirect me after 10 minutes. You don’t go to a director to work out marriage problems but to hear the voice of God.
 
You say “I have little to say or to ask.” Why did you seek spiritual direction? What were you hoping would come from meeting with a director? Have your goals or desires changed since you started meeting?
 
Be honest, and do not hold back, if you are going for help and to find the truth, then don’t be afraid to let it all out, if ya hold back, you are only hurting yourself.

there is no real method to " prepare ", praying though is always helpful for entering a difficult situation that requires that extra bit of help one lacks.

And better yet if you are not certain about what Spiritual Direction is, just simply ask ( I assume you are talking to a priest ) ask him just that, ask him if he can help you, guide you, suggest if you need some other kind of counseling, an just emphasise if anything you are looking for help.

Spiritual Direction in my small opinion takes a lot of forms…
 
Joannm said:
First of all does your director offer you suggestions for spiritual reading or ask you to reflect on things? If he or she does then you should discuss the insights you received. Do you journal? I find that reviewing my journals helps me to prepare. Do you pray before you go for direction? I spend time in prayer before so that my director and I are both open to the Holy Spirit. If your director does not lead you into discussing your prayer life and your spiritual life then perhaps the director is not directing you well.

There was a time when I complained to my director about something each time I saw him but he would always redirect me after 10 minutes. You don’t go to a director to work out marriage problems but to hear the voice of God.
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I don’t do many of these things. This would be a help. I know that a lot of people, including many of the greatest of the Saints, went to spiritual direction regularly for their entire lives. What did they have to talk about after 50 years?
SuscipeMeDomine said:
You say “I have little to say or to ask.” Why did you seek spiritual direction? What were you hoping would come from meeting with a director? Have your goals or desires changed since you started meeting?
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I am a one-year old Catholic; I was agnostic before with no religious background. I was hoping to go to spiritual direction to better my relationship with God, to learn how to pray and to be a Catholic. My goals have not really changed, although I am much better in those categories.
 
yellow8yellowM said:
I don’t do many of these things. This would be a help. I know that a lot of people, including many of the greatest of the Saints, went to spiritual direction regularly for their entire lives. What did they have to talk about after 50 years?
Click to expand...
I haven’t been doing it for 50 years but I still find that there’s always something new to talk about. A conversation may start out with how things are going really well right now…and take some time to appreciate what that means. Or it may start out that there’s some snag in my spiritual life and talk about how to overcome problems with prayer, or relationships, or whatever it might be. We’ve talked about adding new spiritual practices or dropping old ones. We’ve talked about decisions I need to make. There’s no specific list of things we talk about but there’s always something going on.
I am a one-year old Catholic; I was agnostic before with no religious background. I was hoping to go to spiritual direction to better my relationship with God, to learn how to pray and to be a Catholic. My goals have not really changed, although I am much better in those categories.
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Prayer is a great starting point. You might talk with him about your current prayer practices and explore what is most meaningful to you, what enhances your relationship with God, what you might explore in the way of prayer, etc. What’s easy about praying, what’s hard about praying, how is it changing you. You have the content for several meetings right there!
 
yellow8yellowM said:
I have been going to Spiritual Direction for about 6 months now and I often have little to say or to ask and I always end up talking about marriage problems.
Click to expand...
The purpose of spiritual direction is no less than making saints. Every part of our life is included in our spirituality.

If there are marriage problems to discuss and if the discussion brings you closer to God, provides you a better mentality to deal with problems, improves your relationship with your spouse, and with God, then, yes, marriage problems certainly could be included in your spiritual direction.

If your spiritual director is a priest, in discussing problems, he may lead you to see areas you can improve yourself, to realize your certain faults, and all these could be included in the sacrament of confession. This is working toward holiness.

Spiritual direction is not marriage counselling, or any other counselling; however, in addition to discussing spiritual readings, prayer lives, etc, we can and should talk with our spiritual director about our lives, and make efforts toward holiness in every area. After all, the purpose of spiritual direction is no less than making saints.
 
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