Unable to find spiritual director - please pray for me

[GwendolynRose]

I am asking for your prayers and any advice would be appreciated!

Praise God I have both a disciplined and deep prayer life. I go to mass daily, pray the LOTH, and devote much time and energy to prayer. I experience visions and locutions on rare occasions, and they have helped me to conform my life to what I believe God’s will for me is. My rule of life is rather strict, though I struggle immensely. I go to confession twice a month but have no good regular confessor. I am sane.

I have been repeatedly told by clergy and laity that I need a spiritual director, and am in total agreement. I especially want one as I move deeper into intercessory prayer and seek to become more disciplined. Problem is I can’t get anybody to agree to talk to me. This has been a very great test for me - emotionally and spiritually. I have been looking for almost 4 years now.

I have approached nearly every theologically orthodox and capable priest that I come across. I actually work in a chancery and am very nearly at the point of stalking new priests coming into the diocese to see if they are suitable. I have not encountered any religious sisters in my area who are a good match. The message I keep getting is that I am good enough for a lay person and that I am not worth anyone’s time unless I start discerning for religious life (which is not an option at this time). Nearly everyone I have asked is competent and experienced in direction.

 

[tawny]

Praying for your intentions.

 

[liturgy96]

I will pray for you. Just a thought: do you have friends who are undergoing spiritual direction? Maybe you can ask them how they got their spiritual directors

 

[Eternity_Next]

St. Faustina didn’t get a spiritual director for years. I read in her Diary that the Lord finally gave her one after a long time. I forget how long but it was years from what I remember.

God gave me a spiritual director recently and God has been doing tons of stuff through him that has helped me greatly. God has been confirming that it is really Him who gave me the director and He has been doing wonderful things through the director He gave me.

Maybe God doesn’t want you to have one right now.

I did not have to look for a spiritual director. God brought him to me, and he asked me if I wanted him to be my director after being prompted by the Holy Spirit.

I think you should stop focusing on this. Have you read St. Faustina’s Diary yet?

I will pray for the intentions, regardless, and it is a great gift to have one that truly comes from God.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

It sounds like you’re being VERY selective in who you are approaching as a possible director. Is it possible that you’re being TOO selective and perhaps eliminating the very person the Holy Spirit has in mind for you?

God is often full of surprises!

 

[Eternity_Next]

It sounds like you’re being VERY selective in who you are approaching as a possible director. Is it possible that you’re being TOO selective and perhaps eliminating the very person the Holy Spirit has in mind for you?

God is often full of surprises!

I doubt this is the case. I think when a spiritual director truly comes from God, both the person and the director know it to be the case and both are disposed to it. He is the one who arranges it.

It is more probable, from what I understand about how this grace works, that God is the one giving them the disposition of being highly selective (if they are in fact being highly selective).

I have a spiritual director who I know God gave me to. He confirmed it. In this situation, I prayed for a spiritual director, and then forgot about it. God guided me to the place I would meet him, a benedictine oblate meeting (I am not an oblate), and then at the meeting he started talking about things that had been giving me difficulty in some ways. After the meeting, I started talking to him and he was moved by the Holy Spirit to ask me to be my spiritual director. It seems that the Holy Spirit gave me a spiritual gift during my first conversation with him (unless I already had received the gift and just had not been able to step out in faith and use it), and also made me aware of another one He had given me that I was unsure of, and then later God confirmed repeatedly that this is His will.

I have received many great graces from God through this director.

It is important that we don’t end up with a spiritual director who God does NOT will for us by making a rash decision. I believe that God shows us, in ways only known to us and to God in many cases, what His will is for us with regards to this specific grace.

 

[guanophore]

The message I keep getting is that I am good enough for a lay person and that I am not worth anyone’s time unless I start discerning for religious life (which is not an option at this time).

This is absurd.

Have you considered entering training to be a spiritual director? You will automatically get assigned one.

 

[KiwiBliss]

I am asking for your prayers and any advice would be appreciated!

Praise God I have both a disciplined and deep prayer life. I go to mass daily, pray the LOTH, and devote much time and energy to prayer. I experience visions and locutions on rare occasions, and they have helped me to conform my life to what I believe God’s will for me is. My rule of life is rather strict, though I struggle immensely. I go to confession twice a month but have no good regular confessor. I am sane.

I have been repeatedly told by clergy and laity that I need a spiritual director, and am in total agreement. I especially want one as I move deeper into intercessory prayer and seek to become more disciplined. Problem is I can’t get anybody to agree to talk to me. This has been a very great test for me - emotionally and spiritually. I have been looking for almost 4 years now.

I have approached nearly every theologically orthodox and capable priest that I come across. I actually work in a chancery and am very nearly at the point of stalking new priests coming into the diocese to see if they are suitable. I have not encountered any religious sisters in my area who are a good match. The message I keep getting is that I am good enough for a lay person and that I am not worth anyone’s time unless I start discerning for religious life (which is not an option at this time). Nearly everyone I have asked is competent and experienced in direction.

So for about 2 years now, I still have no compatible spiritual director… no matter how many Novenas & Rosary requests I do including that simple request. There’s definitely a reason for that and most times I wonder whether or not I’m called to religious life or not because of that. Overall, I think the reason we still don’t have a spiritual director that is a good fit for us is because Jesus desires for us to rely totally on Him for everything to learn to trust in His providence. Although daily I struggle with spiritual consolations & desolations and change my mind every other day between pursuing religious life or married life, Jesus does know us more than any spiritual director can and perhaps some of us don’t really need a spiritual director or perhaps we need it the most but that Jesus has more teaching to do with us… idk, I’m still trying to interpret the meaning behind having no consistent person to help guide me on this, except Jesus & Our Lady (of course). I’ve experienced a private revelation in a dream with Our Lady before that involves what Vocation that I’m already called to. Despite experiencing that dream, I still struggle trusting in Our Lady’s guidance and Our Lord Jesus’ teachings to lead the Way, Truth, & Life along life’s ups & downs. Will include you in my daily prayers & hopefully in God’s timing, He will provide the right spiritual director that will meet your spiritual needs.