Christian Spiritual Direction is the ancient practice of listening with another for the voice and movement of God in a seeker’s life. It offers companionship in the most important, intimate area of one’s life; exploring the inner landscape where one receives and responds to the God who is Love.

It is a gentle practice, where a trained director spends one hour monthly with a seeker. With the acknowledgment that the Holy Spirit is the true guide, the director enters into prayerful conversation with the seeker regarding his/her relationship with God. The seeker is encouraged to express areas of connection with God as well as areas of lack of connection, where God was seen and not seen, heard and not heard. Both trust the Holy Spirit to bring to the surface those things that are most important in the struggle to receive and respond to God’s loving invitation to honest relationship.

Spiritual direction explores what hinders and what promotes attentiveness and response to the Spirit’s action in the seeker. The focus is no longer getting more things from God (job, health, safety, wealth, influence) but has turned toward experiencing more of God, listening to God’s voice above all others, and following where God is leading a person into more love and life.

Individuals who long for more with God often find it a lonely place apart from what they have known previously in Christian church and community. Though it may be lonely in spots, thankfully, many before us have valued and preserved the practice of one coming alongside another as a friend to the soul and a co-listener for the voice and movement of Emmanuel, the God who is with us.