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Spiritual Direction:Seminar Two

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Spiritual Direction: Seminar Two

Presented by Jenny Campbell

Name:

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CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, UK Tel: +44 (0)1252 784719 Email: courses@cwr.org.uk Website: cwr.org.uk Registered Charity No. 294387. Registered Limited Company No. 1990308. © CWR August 2017, CS. Not to be reproduced without permission. For more copyright information please refer to last page of notes.

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Clues to the importance of Spiritual Direction for the Christian

Seminar Two

Two Listening Relationships

Seminar focus

1. A spiritual direction toolkit to help Christians in the process of maturity, in the work place, family, community and church.

2. Two listening relationships: listening to God on one’s own and listening to God through another person i.e. spiritual director.

‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.’ Mark 6: 31 (NRSV)

A Toolkit for Spiritual Direction

‘The classical language of spirituality speaks of ‘unselfing’, that is, shedding the outgrown skins and discarding whatever clutters us and weights us down. It is a kind of death, repeated again and again if we remain spiritually alive. The spiritual director can be a gentle assistant.’ (Guenther 1998, 110)

THE WAY OF SILENCE & RETREAT

DESERT Biblical precedents of withdrawal & prayer: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul Early monasticism practised withdrawal and prayer: ‘Go sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.’ (Desert teacher)

Our age avoids the confrontation of being alone & lives in a ‘state of anaesthesia’ & ‘hollow talk’. There must be an ability to refrain from chatter, to be ‘closed’ (Nouwen 1998, 6, 11)

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‘To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.’ (Nouwen, 13)

SOLITUDE Biblical precedent for solitude: When you pray, close the door, go into your chamber, your Father sees you in secret ( Jesus)

Find a room, a corner where no one will find you or disturb you or notice you, ‘to untether yourself from the world and set yourself free, loosing all the fine stings and strands of tension that bind you, by sight, by sound, by thought, to the presence of others.’ (Merton 2003, 61-62)

‘…the truest solitude is not something outside you, not an absence of people or of sound around you; it is an abyss opening up in the centre of your own soul. And this abyss of interior solitude is a hunger which will never be satisfied with any created thing.’ (Merton, 61)

Some insist to preserve interior solitude while living in the midst of others but ‘In practice their lives are devoured by activities and strangled with attachments.’ (Merton, 62)

PRAYER

• Hearing God away from others through prayer (and fasting, meditation, vision, dream)

Jesus: When you pray. Prayer is non-negotiable. Disciples: Teach us to pray. Prayer is non-negotiable. All great saints and spiritual directors: Prayer is our first obligation and our highest calling.

Prayer is intimacy with God: ‘a spiritual life without prayer is like a gospel without Christ’ (Nouwen, 91)

‘Make yourself a rule always to be with the Lord, keeping your mind in your heart and do not let your thoughts wander; as often as they stray, turn them back again and keep them at home in the closet of your heart and in converse with the Lord.’ (Theophan the Recluse 19thc Russian Hesychast)

But I find it hard to pray:

• Make a daily prayer appointment with God and keep it• Begin by meditating on Scripture• Use a prayer list

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• Pray out loud, if possible• Don't fight wandering thoughts• Thank God for what he has done for you

(Hughes 2009, A12)

• Hearing God with others in a retreat environment of worship & reflection

The day alone is counterbalanced by the day together. (Bonhoeffer)

The flight of the alone to the Alone cannot be the sole goal of Christian prayer.

We fly in convoy like wild geese.

God is Trinity and community & we learn about our own journeys & our own need to be in contact with others in prayer & worship. Here we see the heart of another made in the image of God, knowing that the Bible & prayer enlarge the heart, realising that community enfolds & grows a person holistically. These insights matter in the care or cure of souls to those who entrust their friendship to us.

Two Listening Relationships

Two listening relationships: with God & with the spiritual director.

Listening to God: Is that really you, God? Discerning the will of God; silence; retreat; tests for guidance.

Listening to the spiritual director: to an opinion contrary to my own, hearing God through another; learning spiritual disciplines/exercises, learning to pray with another.

THE WAY OF ATTENTIVE LISTENING

Engaging in relationship: the choice of a spiritual director & hearing God through a conscious attentiveness to another’s wisdom.

Engaging in relationship: testing guidance by submitting it to another.

Engaging in relationship: learning to listen to the nudges of God through another, although they may conflict with my desires & thoughts.

‘He is entirely alone who is without a friend.’ (Aelred of Rievaulx)

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DEVELOPING A RULE OF LIFE

A contemplative reading of the word of God ‘take and read, take and read’ (Augustine)

A silent listening to the voice of God, often feeling useless & silent in the presence of God

A trusting obedience to a spiritual guide exercising discernment in our own passions, dreams, visions, illusions & delusions

DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Offers hospitality for the soul, listening with the ‘mind in the heart’ in a disinterested way, not curiously or drawn into emotions but detached.

Allows the other to touch & be touched whatever the rubbish to be dealt with, bringing self-disclosure, present in times of vulnerability & works in areas deep & intimate.

Allows gestation & does not try to speed up the process of change or make things right or fix things but encourages new habits of soul formation, setting time constraints on each session.

‘For the teacher-director the love of souls is a detached, contemplative love that wants nothing in return.’ (Guenther, 54).

Practice Attentive Listening

• PRACTISE THE PRESENCE OF GOD Log in a prayer diary the times when God has spoken. Do this over a period of a year & note the changes in your soul Plan to attend a guided retreat & journal your reflections, breakthroughs

• PRACTISE THE PRESENCE OF GOD Risk finding a spiritual director & try out the practice for a trial period. Journal your reflections.

• PRACTISE THE PRESENCE OF GOD Allow yourself space & time to be real with yourself, to face your struggles & fears – go for a walk and let nature speak to you, talk to a friend & let the Spirit guide, listen to a piece of music & be inspired

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FURTHER READING

D. Bonhoeffer (2015). Life Together. London: SCM.

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (multiple versions).

L. Cunningham (2001 2nd ed.). Is that really you, God? Hearing the voice of God. Seattle, YWAM.

M. Guenther (1998). Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction. London, Darton, Longman & Todd.

J. Huggett (2016). Listening to God. London, Hodder & Stoughton.

S. Hughes (2009). What to say when people need help: A short guide. CWR

T. Merton (2003). New Seeds of Contemplation. London, Burns & Oates.

H. Nouwen (1998). Reaching Out. London, Fount.

H. Nouwen (2013). Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life. London, SPCK.

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We are often asked if there are any restrictions put by CWR on the use of the material taught on our courses. The insights, illustrations and ideas are free for all to use but what we require of our students is that when insights and ideas are taken from the course and are used to teach others, students use their own creativity in expanding and presenting these and do not simply quote from CWR text. It is always good to quote sources whenever possible and thus give credit to the individual or organisation concerned.

It is permissible to use short extracts from CWR material for teaching purposes, provided you acknowledge CWR as the source of the material and the owner of the copyright in it. It is not otherwise permissible to copy from CWR courses. Copying cannot be done by any means of a reprographic process.

If you wish to use ideas taught on our courses, then we would encourage you to present them in a form which reflects an identity of its own, and not a slightly amended version of a CWR course. Some have simply re-arranged the points made on our courses and then have presented them as their own, believing this meets our requirements, which it does not. Also, CWR has sometimes been quoted as teaching a certain principle when in fact the interpretation given by others was not what was taught by CWR.

What we expect of everyone who has gone through a CWR course is first to assimilate the material, and then to apply it to their own lives before attempting to teach it to others, and to be as creative as possible in that expression. We would stress once again that the unauthorised reproduction of pages from CWR courses is a violation of our copyright.

It is requested that you maintain Christian integrity over this issue.

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