Question about Spiritual Direction

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Humility101

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Should a spiritual director be a priest from your parish? One you know personally and can meet with face to face? Or could a spiritual director be someone you met on the internet and have not met face to face but feel a connection with?

Another question. If a woman is not thinking of becoming a religious, but has a dream that makes no sense to her, then a priest friend tells her that her dream means that she has a vocation to the religious life, should she follow that instruction? Or wait to speak to another priest? Or just pray to find out if this is what God expects of her or not.

God bless,
~Rae
 
Humility101 said:
Should a spiritual director be a priest from your parish? One you know personally and can meet with face to face? Or could a spiritual director be someone you met on the internet and have not met face to face but feel a connection with?

Another question. If a woman is not thinking of becoming a religious, but has a dream that makes no sense to her, then a priest friend tells her that her dream means that she has a vocation to the religious life, should she follow that instruction? Or wait to speak to another priest? Or just pray to find out if this is what God expects of her or not.

God bless,
~Rae
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A spiritual director should like a mirror: give you the image of Christ.
He should be a mirror of what you are.
He should not be a person who tells you what you like to hear but what you need to do.
He should be close to you or unknown or a person in Internet as long as He leads you to Christ.
Many times I get messages from Christ from people I never thought would be couriers of Christ.
It is hard to give spiritual direction to anybody.
It is hard to find a good spiritual director

My way: I do not have one spiritual director. I try to learn from everybody. sometimes people who criticize me here are couriers of Christ, teach me something christian.

My opinion, only.
 
A spiritual director should be someone competent to direct you in the spiritual life. It doesn’t matter who it is as long as they are good. The best practical resource that I have seen on spiritual direction is from the packet on consecrated vrigins, “SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: FINDING A DIRECTOR AND ONGOING DIRECTION” consecratedvirgins.org/linked/VocRes1-1InfoPkt_new.pdf (There are other resources but they are often more theoretical than practical.")
 
Humility101 said:
Should a spiritual director be a priest from your parish? One you know personally and can meet with face to face? Or could a spiritual director be someone you met on the internet and have not met face to face but feel a connection with?

Another question. If a woman is not thinking of becoming a religious, but has a dream that makes no sense to her, then a priest friend tells her that her dream means that she has a vocation to the religious life, should she follow that instruction? Or wait to speak to another priest? Or just pray to find out if this is what God expects of her or not.

God bless,
~Rae
Click to expand...
God frequently calls people when they are not expecting it. I don’t think one dream is a definite call to religious life, but I do think God can speak to people in this way. I suggest you see this as a call to pray more frequently and seriously about your vocation- and get into spiritual direction.

Ideally, a person’s spiritual director should also be their confessor. That doesn’t always happen though. Sometimes, the priests are all unavailable or unable to give you what you need. In those situations, turn to a religious brother or sister- or even a lay person for help, as long as they are very strong and knowledgeable in the Faith.
 
Thank you all for your responses. They helped a lot. Particularly the link for Consecrated Virgins, LovePatience, it was very informative.

God bless,
~Rae
 
I think you should keep an open mind on the religious vocation. It is not something you have to immediately act on. My best friend entered the Poor Clares in her early 30’s, after getting her MBA and working in both NYC and Kansas City.

I’m inclined to say that spiritual direction should be a face-to-face encounter. For my part, I have a regular confessor that I see during regular confession times about monthly. Sometimes it is strictly confession/absolution, but there are occasions where I ask for and receive feedback on something bothering me. There is never a line, so don’t fuss about me hogging confession time! One need not talk at great length to get wonderful (name removed by moderator)ut. That being said, sometimes spiritual direction can come from homilies and the like, though it is not tailored to your individual situation.

There is a blog …roman catholic spiritual direction - or something along those lines, and a book - Seeking Spiritual Direction - that might be useful to you.
 
Thank you for the links, Acadian.

Very helpful!

God bless you all.
~Rae
 
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