Question for People Who Have Spiritual Directors

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Marian cathathist by fr john harden apply religious principal s. That satisfy
 
Thanks for the link…
Souljourners is an ecumenical spiritual formation program for those seeking access to the nourishment of the deep wells of spiritual treasure in their tradition.
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Good grief. Who writes this stuff?
 
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I’ve had SDs for about 8 years, two different ones.
Has helped me immensely.
The SD’s formation needs to be outstanding, and his/her interior life needs to be strong (regular, substantial prayer, regular reception of the Sacraments, including Sacramental Confession).
You need a SD who is focused on making your interior life stronger…not to chit chat and commiserate.
Sessions should be short but regular, 10-15m, tops.
Males have male SDs…females should have female SDs.

Focus could/should largely around these or similar topics:
  • Preoccupations
  • Sorrows
  • Joys
  • Faith/trust in God
  • Purity
  • Prayer life, devotions (devotions should be “few, but constant, and not getting in the way of family life”).
  • Work life
  • Spirit of sacrifice/detachment
  • Apostolate
  • Spiritual reading…what are you reading/what are taking away from it
  • Current resolutions.
One or two of these per session.

Less this or that event…but what are your “motives for action”.

AS IMPORTANT is our own approach to being directed.
If we’ve prayed for a good spiritual director…when we get one…we have to give them the “supernatural benefit of the doubt” (we have to have faith that God is speaking to us, through them…and not simply “cafeteria” our way through the advice we’re given by our SD).

Also we have to have the greatest “sincerity”, saying FIRST what we want to say last, if at all.

St Josemaria said: "As I have already said, we all have our defects. But our defects should never be a reason for us to turn away from God’s Love. Rather should they lead us to cling to that Love, sheltering within his divine goodness, as the warriors of old did by climbing into their suits of armour. Our defense is the cry ecce ego, quia vocasti me [1], here I am, because you have called me. Just because we discover how fragile we are is no reason to run away from God. What we must do is to attack our defects, precisely because we know that God trusts us.

Forgive me for insisting on these points, but I believe it is absolutely necessary for you to have deeply impressed on your minds the fact that humility, together with its immediate consequence, sincerity; are the thread which links the other means together. These two virtues act as a foundation on which a solid victory can be built. If the dumb devil gets inside a soul, he ruins everything. On the other hand, if he is cast out immediately, everything turns out well; we are happy and life goes forward properly. Let us always be brutally sincere, but in a good mannered way.

I want one thing to be clear: I am not as worried about the heart or the flesh as I am about pride. Be humble. If ever you think you are completely and utterly right, you are not right at all. Go to spiritual direction with your soul wide open. Don’t close it because, I repeat, the dumb devil will get in, and it is difficult to get him out again. (Friends of God, 187-188)"

[1] 1 Kings 3:6,8
 
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Mainly because one tends to forget most of the points discussed in a longer session, and we naturally gravitate to the most pleasant/least costly/softest one remembered, as we form a resolution (the main goal of SD)

And it can also turn into a chit/chat, snitch session, or filled with storytelling and self-justifications.

Get in, get it out on the table, get a resolution, get on with it. Speeds the day, and the way to improvement.

We should have a sense of “spiritual dispatch.”

The life of interior struggle is hard enough…we don’t need to make it harder with long sessions where we have to sift through a lot.

“Ok…I need to trust God more…I’m going to say this aspiration “In Your Holy Name I trust” frequently each day…and when I first wake up, and when my head hits the pillow at the end of a long and generously lived day!”

That can be gotten in 15m
 
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SuperLuigi said:
The people who need spiritual direction are those who are discerning a vocation or who have a scrupulous conscience.
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This really isn’t true. Spiritual direction is for those who want to grow in holiness. Unfortunately there haven’t been enough of them to go around. It used to be primarily those in religious life who had SD’s but the value of good spiritual direction for anyone cannot be over stated, imo. It is nice to have a priest or religious as your SD but as some have already pointed out there are very competent lay directors as well.

I meet with my SD whenever I feel like I need to but generally a formal meeting is about every 3 months. He is also my confessor and so I’m able to see him for short “meetings” in the confessional. These times are 10 minutes or less even with confession. He has helped me tremendously and I look forward to our meetings even if they are a bit painful at times.
 
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It’s true, but not exclusionary.

+1

@Edward_H @KatyCatholic
 
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what do you mean…to what point did I make that you say it’s not “exclusionary”?
 
And that’s why it’s a good idea to find out WHERE they got that SD certificate from, as well. 😉
 
I think going to a parish priest is fine in almost all cases.

However, I wouldn’t trust anyone on this site.
 
Going to a parish priest is fine but not the ones on this site??
 
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