Spiritual Direction

I began my new class tonight. It's called Spiritual Direction: Seminar for Spirituality and Ministry. I'm not sure yet if spiritual direction is something that can be taught or if it is a spiritual gift, but I'm looking forward to finding out over the next 8 weeks.

A few years back I heard an individual from my old church describe himself as the spiritual director of a particular ministry in town. To be honest, the title seemed a bit "Gothardy" to me. Plus I knew from my previous experience with this individual that he was in no way, shape, or form trustworthy to give direction to anyone under any circumstances.

Ahem.

So that's my lovely story of the first time I heard about spiritual direction. Of course, later I read about the topic in Celebration of Discipline and understood it in the wider context of guidance. A year or two ago I started attending some programs at a monastery in my region, but never quite got around to taking advantage of spiritual direction.

I began sessions with my spiritual director last semester as a requirement of the MARSF program. I chose a pastor in town who has a good reputation and whom I personally admire. It's a good experience seeing this relationship unfold.

My understanding of spiritual direction at this point is that it is an encouraging relationship between two Christians. The relationship is a formalized mentor/mentee relationship. (Is mentee a real word or did I just make that up?)

Actually, the mentor description isn't totally apt. It's more like the spiritual director is a sounding board for the thoughts and feelings about God that I have kicking around inside myself. He asks questions and helps bring that stuff up to the surface.

Spiritual Direction is a positive experience for me–-how else can I so intently focus my attention on the things of the spirit?