Starting Spiritual Direction - what to expect?

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Hoosier

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As I may have mentioned once or twice :rolleyes:, I don’t have the faith or connection with Jesus that I’d like to have. I’m meeting with someone who runs my church’s Spriitual Direction program tomorrow, just to talk. I don’t know if I’ll find an SD at my church, or somewhere else.

What should I expect at this preliminary meeting? I don’t want to just sit there and gripe about how low my faith is.

Thanks, Hoosier.
 
My suggestion is to get to know this person first. Explore there level of spirituality and fidelity. Probe them with questions on their background. This is someone whom you may eventually trust your spiritual life to, thus it is VERY important to know who they are. This should take up most, if not all, of your first meeting with them. Afterwards, pray heavily to the Holy Spirit to direct you if He wants you to proceed with this person. You will find your answer.
 
The person I met with yesterday is in charge of Spiritual Direction at my church. He may or may not end up being my SD.
It was a very nice meeting. I told him the truth about the doubts and frustrations I have, and he reassured me about them. He told me about his background, both in business and in spiritual direction. I think I’d like another woman as an SD. He gave me the names of some, including a sister at a local monastery.
 
Hi Hoosier, Finding a SD can be tough. I had an Opus Dei Priest as a director once until he was moved far away. I was able to give a general confession of sorts to him and this helped give him an idea where to start. I was giving an unexpected, but wise task in retrospect. Whomever becomes your director, give it time and try not to have set expectations as the area they see to work on may not be apparant to yourself. Tim
 
My dear friend

Don’t focus on the negatives when you talk about yourself. Bring them up, but be positive and talk about your positives. Especially about your holy desires to improve and grow in grace and virtue. It’s better to focus on the good in yourself and increase that because the bad will go as the good increases.

This is a great quote from the founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria, who along with all his priests is very focused on spiritual direction. This is more of a big goal in the spiritual life-

Friends of God > Getting to know God > Number 147http://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gifhttp://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gif147http://www.escrivaworks.org/images/misc/pixtrans.gifBe very childlike! the more childlike, the better. I speak from my experience as a priest, who has had to pick himself up many times in these past thirty-six years (how long and yet how short they now seem to me!) which have been spent striving to fulfil a very precise requirement of God’s Will. There’s one thing that has helped me always, the fact that I am still a child, and I am always climbing onto my Mother’s lap and finding refuge in the Heart of Christ, my Lord.

Serious falls, of the kind that can do great damage to the soul, at times almost irreparable damage, can always be traced back to the pride of thinking oneself to be grown up and self-sufficient. In such cases, people seem almost incapable of asking for help from those who can give it: not only from God, but also from a friend, or from a priest. And the poor soul, alone in its misfortune, sinks into confusion and loses its way.

Let us beseech God, right now, never to let us feel self-satisfied, but rather to make us grow ever more desirous of his help, his word, his Bread, his consolation and his strength: rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite, foster your hunger, your ambition to be like children. Believe me, it is the best way to conquer pride; and it’s the only way to make our conduct good, great hearted, divine. ‘Believe me, unless you become like little children again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.’

Hope this helps.

God bless you and I’ll pray all goes well:thumbsup:🙂
John
 
How do we balance this need for childlikeness with surviving in the adult world? My life is going nowhere and just hoping, wishing and praying doesn’t do any anything. Well, I guess I get credit for praying, but it doesn’t have any tangible effect in the here-and-now… I can’t afford any more wishful thinking, kidding myself that God will somehow magically make my drreams come true.
 
Wow!! I have been in spiritual direction for a few years now and quite honestly I have also been led by many various directors. What is that saying–there is for everything (and every director) a time or season? All have been a help on my road which is rocky to say the least. The spiritual director that I have right now I have been with for 2-3 years and is so holy that his example alone gives me faith and hope. I have been guided closer to Christ with love and accountability and blame when it is necessary. Perhaps the best key to what one might ‘get out’ of sd is not what will it do for me but what am I willing to put into it. We all have our paths to walk and a good road map is a great help but as with most other things it is my walk and I must want it and be willing to walk it. The best advise I could give is to find a very holy person who believes in and loves the Lord more than life itself. God bless you on your journey–your map is closer than you think! :clapping:
 
Thank you all. I’m slowly but surely getting there. Please pray for me.
 
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