by Nancy Small

“What is Your Hope for Spiritual Direction?”

This question was posed to me while I was meeting with the staff of an Ignatian spirituality center last autumn. I offered a brief response and continued to ponder the question in the following months. The more I contemplate it, the more I believe it’s a great question for all spiritual directors to consider.

The question brought me back to my own beginnings with spiritual direction. I was introduced to it as a Jesuit Volunteer on a silent directed weekend retreat and was drawn to it immediately. Having someone to accompany me along my spiritual journey, someone I could talk with about all the spiritual questions stirring in me, someone who would help me hear the voice of God in the midst of my chaotic life sounded too good to be true. It spoke to something deep in me and has been touching me in that deep place ever since.

I have heard people say that they do not know where they would be without spiritual direction. They speak of the difference it has made in their relationship with God and in finding that vocational place, in the words of Frederick Buechner, where their “deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” Think of your own experience with spiritual direction, the difference it has made in your spiritual life and growth in God. Without it, I may never have discerned a call to ministry that my spiritual director recognized before I was ready to consider it on my own.

So given its prominence in my life, what is my hope for spiritual direction?

I hope that a growing number of people will be drawn to spiritual direction as a means to grow in their relationship with God, to cultivate a discerning spirit, to discover the presence and purpose of God in their lives, and to navigate an increasingly complex world using the compass that spiritual direction offers;

I hope that the field of spiritual direction will reflect greater diversity among those giving and receiving direction and be enriched by the gifts that diversity offers when all are welcomed and encouraged to live into and out of the fullness of their being;  

I hope that the field of spiritual direction will be well-served by compassionate spiritual directors and supervisors who are shaped and formed by competent spiritual direction and supervision training programs, receiving the support needed to make this possible.

As spiritual directors, I hope that we foster bonds of spiritual communion with one another, especially as we work with marginalized communities in an increasingly complex world;

Last but certainly not least, as spiritual directors, I hope we recognize that we are entrusted with a sacred ministry that we are to steward wisely, remembering that the roots of spiritual direction reach back through the ages of people hungry for spiritual conversation, counsel and companionship and that these roots drink from the eternal spring of God’s living water that never runs dry.

This is my hope for spiritual direction. What is yours?