Fr. Philip Powell, OP makes some great points on seeking a good spiritual director.
For those who want to go deeper on the subject I highly recommend Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
Fr. Philip Powell, OP makes some great points on seeking a good spiritual director.
For those who want to go deeper on the subject I highly recommend Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
2 comments
Jeff, thanks for the link! I would like to encourage everyone to read the comments as well. My readers provide a wealth of additional advice.
Fr. Philip, OP
The more I consider spiritual direction today, the more I have the nagging sense that the whole practice needs shepherding. We know, for instance, that much popular error exists in the heads of faithful Catholics today because religious educators were not directed and educated enough by the existing hierarchy, or by any vehicle for oversight. Often because of a lack of time, resources, etc, educators are left to “do their own thing”, or DRE’s are permitted to create curricula as they see fit, without direct accountability.
Is it too much of a stretch, then, to imagine that there are many confused Catholics whose thinking may have become confused by their willing subjection to an off-kilter SD? If the director/directee relationship is so confidential, so sacred that what occurs within it may not be held up to the light even when the directee is bewildered by the guidance he/she is receiving, to whom is the SD accountable? Without some protections in place, this looks like a game of Catholic roulette, even with advice up front about what a seeker should seek in a director. (Perhaps most dangerous of all is our tendency to choose a person who conforms to our errors, because challenge doesn’t always feel “friendly”.)
I am reminded of a comforting mandate I saw printed on the website of a local theologian/educator, Anna Rae-Kelly:
” I hereby declare my role and responsibility
as a teacher of a theological discipline within
the full communion of the Church. As a
teacher of a theological discipline, therefore,
I am committed to teach authentic Catholic
doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as
Catholic teaching anything contrary to the
Church’s magisterium.”
I thought, at the time, that such a declaration should be signed and posted by all Catholic educators and spiritual directors for the sake of the student’s/directee’s/seeker’s nerves. Without at least this much assurance of an educator/director’s intentions, a directee can spend inordinate amounts of time questioning themselves about what is advised and end up chasing their own tail, OR they can assume (and often do) that because a person is a “qualified” SD or priest, or religious, that person (especially if we perceive that person to be a “kindred spirit”) will necessarily conform to the teaching of the Church.