What does a spiritual director offer?

1. A Spiritual Director listens to the directee, engaging in conversation, one to another, with a focus.  This focus is to pay attention to what happens when engaging in a relationship with God, encouraging the directee to talk about the experience, asking for clarification and expansion.

2. A Spiritual Director fosters a contemplative attitude in directees.  Often, the first question isn’t “What does this mean?” rather, “What happened during this experience?”

3. A Spiritual Director helps directees discern.  Once an experience has been explored in some detail, the Spiritual Director can help the directee with the question of whether this experience is an experience of God, or rather, what in this experience is of God and what is not.

4. A Spiritual Director helps directees to notice resistance to new developments in the relationship with God and assists in the exploration of what might be getting in the way.

5. A Spiritual Director is someone who prays... both with you and for you.  Additionally, a Spiritual Director may offer different ways to pray, expanding the way you may already be communicating with God.   

*William Barry, “Review of Ignatian Spirituality”, XXXVI, 1/2005