Dominica XV post Pentecosten - Spiritual Life (Spiritual Direction)

LESSON: The necessity of spiritual direction

During His earthly ministry, Our Lord taught many people, he encouraged, he admonished, he called, but when it comes to holiness, Our Lord commanded us to be perfect.

Holiness is not an option, and it is not reserved for the rarefied few whom we call saints. We are all expected to be canonizable saints. As we saw last week as well, maturity in the Spiritual Life is also a prerequisite for entrance to heaven, so we can either work to get there in this life, or we can do it in Purgatory, where it will take much longer, and where we will receive no merit.

Today then, we take a look at the first external means for growth in holiness, Spiritual Direction.

We are made in God’s image and likeness, this is one of the basic truths of our faith, and God is a Trinity of persons, therefore we too are made as relational beings. We cannot go it alone, we need other people and this goes for our spiritual life as well. We do not subscribe to the Protestant notion that all I need is me and Jesus.

Spiritual direction then, has been, in some form or another, present in the Church since the beginning. When St. Paul experienced his conversion, Christ could have communicated everything Paul needed to know to him in an instant, but instead Christ sent him to Ananias to learn from him.

The desert monks, like St. Anthony of Egypt, although they lived a solitary existence, also gave counsel and direction to pilgrims who sought them out, as well as to one another. And we know that the great saints like Teresa of Avila, Faustina, and Elizabeth of the Trinity, all achieved their greatness with the assistance of their spiritual directors.

The question we might ask at this point, is why, if spiritual direction is so necessary, has the Church never taught that everyone is supposed to have a director. To put is simply, God is not bound to operate this way, He can by a special grace elevate anyone He chooses to the heights of holiness in an instant. We see this especially in saints who died very young such as St. Dominic Savio, St. Philomena, and St. Agnes.

However, considerable experience has taught us that for the vast majority, God leaves us in the hands of other people, and so spiritual direction is considered “morally necessary” by theologians which means that it is the normal means by which we achieve holiness.

ILLUSTRATION: Where not to look for a spiritual director

Now that we understand the necessity of Spiritual Direction, it is time to start the search for a director, but we need to first understand where not to look.

First we should address the question, “Do I need a spiritual director if I just read the right books, and study the spiritual life myself?” Which is also a form of the question, “Can’t I just be my own spiritual director?” Well, you might guess that the answer is no.

Being knowledgeable about the spiritual life is always a good thing, but knowledge is not a substitute for direction. We need an outside objective perspective on ourselves. Just as a doctor would not treat himself, we need someone else to give us an unbiased outlook on ourselves because, to quote a wise instructor of mine, “The human person has an infinite capacity for self-deception”. We also tend to give ourselves credit for good intentions even if we don’t follow through on those intentions.

We need someone to keep us on track and accountable.

The other pitfall of being one’s own spiritual director is the tendency to latch on to the latest spiritual fad, like Exodus 90, or the Consecration to St. Joseph. I’m not saying these are bad things, they are great practices, but not everyone needs them, and not everyone will reap the same benefit from them.

The next question to address is whether I can seek spiritual direction from another lay person. Well as we’re still in the section of where not to look, I think you know what the answer is.

The Church has no standard or certification for spiritual directors, so essentially, someone can just hang out their shingle and call themselves a spiritual director regardless of whether they have any training or knowledge.

Many lay people who go into the practice of spiritual direction also tend to have certain animosities towards the Church, and may or may not believe everything the Church teaches.

That being said, what if I find someone who is orthodox and is knowledgeable about the spiritual life. Well there is still one thing lacking, the grace of state. Priests possess what is know as a grace of state, in other words the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders gives a priest divine assistance in the care of souls.

Just as the grace of Matrimony assists the spouses to be good husbands and wives as well as good fathers and mothers, the Sacrament of Holy Orders gives a priest the grace to be a shepherd souls, and no matter how knowledgeable, orthodox, or holy a lay person may be, they do not possess this grace.

If we look historically we will see that many of the great lay and religious saints had what is known as spiritual children, individuals they would correspond with, giving spiritual advice and counsel, but they would never take upon themselves the mantle of spiritual director.

Now this leads us into the separate topic of spiritual friendship, but we will look at that in more depth in our final sermon on the sanctification of social relations.

APPLICATION: Finding a spiritual director

Now that we have narrowed down our field, let’s take a look at how to find a spiritual director. There are three qualities that are necessary for a spiritual director, they must be charitable, knowledgeable, and prudent.

Charity naturally means more than just being kind and patient, it means to be full of love for God and neighbour. More specifically, it means that the director must be seriously interested in his own spiritual perfection, and one who has already made some progress in it. He need not actually be a saint, but he should be striving hard to become one.

Sadly, this means that not all priests are suitable spiritual directors, as there are those who do not take their spiritual life seriously, there are some whose only time of prayer is the annual retreat. Therefore, when seeking a director it’s not improper to ask about the potential director’s own spiritual life and how seriously they take their own growth in holiness.

Knowledgeable is fairly self-explanatory, it means having a working knowledge of spiritual theology, and how to progress in the spiritual life. Again sadly, following the Second Vatican Council, many of the traditional methods and teaching in seminaries were thrown out, including a systematic teaching on the spiritual life. While this is getting better today, it also means that many priests out there will need to have supplemented their knowledge in some way or another in order to serve as good directors.

Finally, directors should be prudent. This means a number of things. It means first of all that they know their limits. Priests are busy, that’s just a fact, but most priests are also not so busy that they don’t have time to offer direction if they organize themselves and their work properly, so we should not be afraid to ask, thinking that we will be imposing on their time.

That being said, this also means that if a priest says he’s too busy to offer direction, it’s probably best not to push the issue, if they’re not prudent with their own time, they probably won’t be prudent with yours.

Secondly, it means knowing when they’re not ready to be a director. Again, one of my very wise professors made the point that just because someone asks you to be their director, does not mean that you are ready to be a director.

Traditionally, a priest would not take on the ministry of direction until they had been ordained 25 years, so they would be seasoned and experienced in pastoral ministry. Today, with far fewer priests some theologians like Fr. Chad Ripperger, recommend that a priest be ordained at least 10 years before offering direction. I would personally say, don’t approach any priest who hasn’t been ordained, at the very least, for five years, as this is the point that experts say a priest has generally settled into his vocation.

Finally, a prudent director is one who possesses a wisdom to know how to apply his knowledge. This is why it requires a certain experience to be a spiritual director, just like a doctor has to understand which remedy to apply in a certain situation, so a director needs to what advice to offer, what book to recommend, when to encourage, when to instruct, and when to direct.

With all of this it might seem a nearly impossible task to find a director, but it’s not, we just have to be patient and prudent in our search. We may have to look outside of our immediate area, I personally go to Oakville every month to meet with my director. But if we pray, and we search with resolve, God will provide.

As we celebrate this Holy Mass today, let us pray that God may lead all of us to our Ananias, the one who will guide us in the ways of the spiritual life to true holiness.