Spiritual Director?

[Jerome22]

How do I find a Spiritual Director I can talk to? I’m 17, and want to deepen my spiritual life. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AlanFromWichita]

I’d say first call, diocese office and/or pastor.

If that doesn’t work you’ll have to get more creative.

When you get hooked up, make sure you “click.” I loved and trusted my SD within five minutes of our first meeting. When he had to retire, the guy who followed him just wasn’t the same… nice guy, we had a lot in common (he even used to be an engineer) but he just seemed a little too “formula” compared to what I had gotten used to.

Alan

 

[Gaber]

I’d say first call, diocese office and/or pastor.

If that doesn’t work you’ll have to get more creative.

When you get hooked up, make sure you “click.” I loved and trusted my SD within five minutes of our first meeting. When he had to retire, the guy who followed him just wasn’t the same… nice guy, we had a lot in common (he even used to be an engineer) but he just seemed a little too “formula” compared to what I had gotten used to.

Alan

I agree. Be very careful. My first one was a Salesian priest who was a former Navy SEAL. Extraordinary man! Later, when he was no longer available, and I had had a remarkable awakening, I had to go outside the Church for competent guidance. I kind of won the lottery in that case. Here was a man to whom everyone of any faith could go, and he had useful insights that coudl solve their impasses on their own ground. If I told you some of the people who went to him for guidance, you would know them from the news, even “Catholic” news. But I was exceptionally fortunate. You will be too, if you keep it simple and look sincerely where your heart leads you.

 

[englishredrose]

Hello
I agree but it also shouldn’t matter totally because you will learn to trust them as I discover with the many priests we have had at our church. Though I do tend to feel that I have shared far more with the current priest in the last four month than anyone at all and a part of me is wary because when he does move on I will have to find some other way because whilst I have spoken before to priests, never as trusting as the current one and i know it wont happen again in the future so kind of making the most of it now and learning some important lessons along the way too through his support. He has certainly made God very accessible to me and hopefully I will always remember that as now I pray very differently to ever before that is when I have bothered to pray before.

Sometimes you only know how good you have got it when a person moves away etc. Somehow I knew with this priest before he has moved away but know that time one day will come. Its is very lucky if you find a spiritual director who you immediate click with and on the whole we don’t really know until a lot later. But sometimes it takes awhile for the click to happen. Its not always instant. But hope you have a positive time in deepening your faith. Its a good experience but it is a life long journey that has its ups and downs.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

My dioceses has a list of people who are accepted spiritual directors by the dioceses. They volunteer themselves to those looking for spiritual direction.

You can also check out going on a week-end retreat. You’ll hook up with a spiritual director for that week-end, and often, they become spiritual directors for people for long term.

Jim

 

[HonoraDominum]

It’s a very good thing to find someone to whom you can share the state of your soul, and to make sure that you’re not veering off track, spiritually speaking. I recommend that as you search for a director, spend time reading the classic works of the Saints on how to live a good, pious life. Finding certain saints that truly speak to you can help a Director discern what type of spiritual path may be a good match for you. For example, if you find yourself particularly attracted to Carmelite saints, a director may be able to recommend a more contemplative prayer life, whereas if you find yourself drawn to Benedictine or Franscisan saints, you may want to take a more work-based or service-based spiritual emphasis.

I recommend praying to your guardian angel and to your patron saints to help guide you to spiritual reading that will help you with the problems you are facing at the moment. I have found amazing coincidences in the spiritual issues in my life and the book that was providencially placed in my hands at just the right time. Little Thérèse was definitely a spiritual director when I was reading “Story of a Soul” for the first time, teaching me patience with my own prayer life and the importance of humble confidence in my littleness and nothingness. St. Frances de Sales helped me so much when I started suffering the scruples that attack so many who truly desire to deepen their spiritual lives. And the words of St. John of the Cross help me when my sorrows are based on my disordered attachments to things of this world.

St. Alphonsus Liguori taught me a great lesson as I faced my own struggle with finding a spiritual director. In his classic work, “Uniformity with God’s Will”, St. Alphonsus says this:

We ought to view in the light of God’s holy will, the loss of persons who are helpful to us in a spiritual or material way. Pious souls often fail in this respect by not being resigned to the dispositions of God’s holy will. Our sanctification comes fundamentally and essentially from God, not from spiritual directors. When God sends us a spiritual director, he wishes us to use him for our spiritual profit; but if he takes him away, he wants us to remain calm and unperturbed and to increase our confidence in his goodness by saying to him: “Lord, thou hast given me this help and now thou dost take it away. Blessed be thy holy will! I beg thee, teach me what I must do to serve thee.”

It’s good to spend much time in prayer asking for the grace to do God’s will, and to ask for strength to do what He is asking of you. Our Lady of Divine Providence, Pray for us.

 

[baltobetsy]

Go to confession freqently and find a priest with whom you feel comfortable. This was the advice that Fr. Vincent Serpa gave on the AAA forum a few weeks ago.

Before people start jumping all over this, you should not take up excessive time in the confessional if people are waiting, but you may find, as I have, that working to overcome your sins and asking the occasional short question are all the direction you need. The self-discipline it takes to get down to essentials in just a few minutes can be very helpful to you in understanding yourself.

I have one confessor who also serves as my spiritual director, and I have found, to my surprise, that the four or five minutes in confession are wayyy more helpful than the hour by appointment. Maybe it’s the sacramental grace. Maybe it’s the time limit forcing us to get down to essentials quickly. Whatever, I always seem to get more from confession than from visits outside the confessional. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Gaber]

Go to confession freqently and find a priest with whom you feel comfortable. This was the advice that Fr. Vincent Serpa gave on the AAA forum a few weeks ago.

Before people start jumping all over this, you should not take up excessive time in the confessional if people are waiting, but you may find, as I have, that working to overcome your sins and asking the occasional short question are all the direction you need. The self-discipline it takes to get down to essentials in just a few minutes can be very helpful to you in understanding yourself.

I have one confessor who also serves as my spiritual director, and I have found, to my surprise, that the four or five minutes in confession are wayyy more helpful than the hour by appointment. Maybe it’s the sacramental grace. Maybe it’s the time limit forcing us to get down to essentials quickly. Whatever, I always seem to get more from confession than from visits outside the confessional. Your mileage may vary.

Your story reminded me of my approach through high school and alter. I didn’t, peraonally, lke the confessional, beiing kind of an open person and more conversatinal than digital. So even if it was 5 minutes, or an hour, I prefered the face to face. And one thing I learned? Much more important to know yourself than to be scrupulous about what was wrong.

The mind organizes around what is put to it as central. That could be anything. That’s why people go off on weird tangents–they somehow accepted an idea asimportant and their mind sered them the world from that standpoint. So what’s that mena? It meant, and still means to me, after many decades, that you model excelence.

When you model excellence what is not excellent fades for lack of support. You know–don’t think about the ant crawoing up your leg-no-don’t–there’s no ant–blah blah blah. and all you can think of is an ant that isn’t there. Think of what is the best solution right now, even if its interim, for all concerned, from the point of view of you doing your business, and not God’s or someone else’s. Yes, what’s best? What are all the facors? What’s unitive here?

The mind is built to devide. That is why some feel that *it *is “the adversary.” The heart unites. It knows that there is already only One. That is why, by measurement, the heart has a far greater magnetic/informative field thatn the brain. The head and the heart have to dance together.You will have religion until you catch their rhythm. Then you will discover that all you ever had/have is Love, and other’s can say what they think.