Get ready for Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is a directed dialogue that helps to know God’s Will. There are three fundamental persons involved in this dialogue: the Holy Spirit (who takes on the work of sanctification in our souls), the director (someone experienced in spiritual life who helps to understand how the Holy Spirit is acting in the directee’s soul), and the directee (the person who is seeking direction that is a fruit of prayer life).

Without constant prayer, there can be no spiritual direction, since God never has the opportunity to speak to the person. There may be a good person, maybe even one working on his spiritual life, but an essential element is missing: constant prayer.

To allow a better spiritual direction, it can be helpful to begin with a plan of spiritual accompaniment where one begins learning the basic points of spiritual life and prepare for a future spiritual direction, working on a well-founded spiritual life.

Spiritual accompaniment is a dialogue with a person with more experience in spiritual life, but does not go as deep as spiritual life because the person is not devoted to prayer. It is not the ideal case, but can happen even for people who are seeking conversion authentically. In spiritual accompaniment, the director should assist the directee to begin opening his soul to the ideal of holiness and to walk the path of deeper conversion. He will correct the faults he sees in the subject, since prayer life on its own may not be sufficient to let him know what changes God is requesting in his life.

A good spiritual accompaniment can serve as an introduction to spiritual direction. During the time of spiritual accompaniment, the director and directee see themes together that will help in a future spiritual direction. It serves as well to complete some themes of personal formation and faith formation.

Get to know the Bible: https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/get-to-know-the-bible

Get to know yourself: https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/get-to-know-yourself

Introduction to Christian meditation: https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/starting-christian-meditation

Confession: https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/understanding-confession

Will formation: https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/will-formation