Dear Area Church Members,
I am participating in the Stillpoint Art of Spiritual Direction Program at Ghost Ranch. Since you are also becoming a Spiritual Director, I thought I might reach out to you for some help. As an Intern I have been working with one “directee” with supervision from the Stillpoint Staff since December. The program I am in is a two year program and I just completed my second week of in-person formation and training. At this point in my program I am asked to find a second directee. I would meet with the new directee for an hour once a month for (hopefully) a year without cost. I would keep the identity of the individual confidential but would be sharing small portions of our conversations with my supervisor.
If you know of anyone from your congregation who might be curious about Spiritual Direction this could be a wonderful learning opportunity for us both. Below you can find a bit more information about Stillpoint’s understanding of Spiritual Direction. If you know of anyone who might have any interest this opportunity please let me know. I can be reached at TAMMY’S EMAIL or at 970-946-0468. I deeply appreciate your time and consideration.
Peace and Grace,
Tami Bradshaw
What is a spiritual director?
A spiritual director is a privileged witness in the spiritual unfolding of another person. The focus is on the relationship between the “directee” and God, rather than on the relationship between the director and directee.
What happens in spiritual direction?
People experience and respond to God/Spirit, or the Divine, in different ways. This is influenced in part by their life experience, their personality, and their cultural and religious backgrounds. The focus of spiritual direction is discerning the movement of the Spirit in the life of the “directee.”
Spiritual directors listen carefully to the unfolding of their directees’ lives to help them discern how the Divine is leading them. A director and directee have regular one-on-one meetings (usually about an hour, once a month) to more deeply explore the directee’s spiritual journey.
The term spiritual direction has a long, rich history, and it is still used today, even though the practice of spiritual direction consists much more of “holy listening,” rather than “direction” in the sense of offering guidance or direct advice.
What does spiritual direction offer?
Spiritual direction explores a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. Simply put, spiritual direction is helping people tell their sacred stories every day. Spiritual direction has emerged in many contexts using language specific to particular cultural and spiritual traditions. Describing spiritual direction requires putting words to a process of fostering a transcendent experience that lies beyond all names and yet the experience longs to be articulated and made concrete in everyday living. It is easier to describe what spiritual direction does than what spiritual direction is.
“Spiritual direction helps us learn how to live in peace, with compassion, promoting justice, as humble servants of that which lies beyond all names.”
