Executive Director, Liz Ellmann has a New Year’s resolution to contemplatively stroll in the wooded and wet neighborhood around the office of Spiritual Directors International. By taking a half-hour walk midday to reflect, to join others praying for peace, and to listen for God’s voice among the birds and dump trucks doing construction nearby, I hope to grow closer to God and contribute to peace with each step. What’s your prayerful resolution?

In an article for UU World, Michelle Bates Deakin writes about the small but growing trend in spiritual direction among Unitarian Universalists.

“A lot of Unitarian Universalists are really crying out for more of a connection to the spirit, and they don’t exactly know what to ask for,” says the Rev. Jade Angelica, a UU minister, spiritual director, and a founder of the Unitarian Universalist Spiritual Directors’ Network (UUSDN). “There is a growing hunger for spirituality and spiritual companioning in our culture, and UUs are no exception.”

To read more about spiritual direction in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, click here.

Six years ago, Sister Anne Marie Lom, OSF, was hired as a part-time spiritual director for St. Raphael Parish, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. She meets with spiritual directees in a spare room in the parish house, which is also her home. At first, she promoted her ministry by speaking at weekend liturgies and handing out business cards at parish events. Now she meets regularly with about seventy-five people a year. Anyone is welcome without regard for faith tradition, parish membership or ability to pay.

“I view spiritual direction as an important and necessary facet of adult faith formation,” says Sister Ann Marie. “It deepens and personalizes theology, doctrine, liturgy, morality and spirituality.”

 Click below to see a video of Sister Anne Marie’s story.

Margit Locker in Hungary sends this image for Christmas reflection. Please add your comments and thoughts.

Kelly Carlin-McCall writes:

[T]oday, I will let this Winter Solstice be another opportunity of awakening. I will not only contemplate what has been lost in my own life in the great burning of my grief, but I will also contemplate what has been lost in this country the last eight, fifty and/or two hundred years.

To read her entire reflection, click here.

Spiritual Directors International member Elizabeth Lim, RGS, from Singapore sent a slide show of a Christmas nativity scene made of sand in the Canary Islands.

Sand Nativity-Pesebre de Arena.pps

Daniel O'Leary writes:

A few weeks ago I was listening to the bells of Ampleforth Abbey pealing grace across the moors and valleys of North Yorkshire. The invitation to share a week with the monks was a great honour. And a great grace. The discipline and regularity of monastic life protects the sacred setting for exploring the shy secrets of God. Together we wondered at the meaning of Incarnation - did God really become human, totally our flesh, utterly our senses, breath of our breath, heart of our heart?

To read his entire post, click here.

On Friday, November 14, 2007, Mount Calvary Monastery and Retreat House overlooking Santa Barbara was destroyed by the Tea Fire.  Fortunately, the brothers, sisters and guests were all safely evacuated.

To read more, to support Mount Calvary in your thoughts and prayers, please click here to visit them.

Psychologist Frank Moncher was asked about the difference between spiritual direction and psychotherapy as it relates to a new document released Oct. 30 by the Congregation for Catholic Education: "Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood." 

His distinction not only provides insight for seminarians, but also helpful information for the general public seeking spiritual direction:

 

In brief, the role of psychotherapy is to free a person from any privations or pathology that might encumber the exercise of their will.
In other words, the psychologist's work is about clearing the path so that a person can pursue their desires in life most ardently.

This is then where spiritual direction proceeds, to guide the discernment of the person so that they pursue true goods and holiness.
Nevertheless, as the document states in paragraph 4, formators are responsible for natural level aspects as well as spiritual aspects of a candidate's development, so coordination between psychologists and formators can be helpful.

Further, in the real world, spiritual direction and psychotherapy naturally occur simultaneously or even in the opposite sequence. In situations where a psychologist and spiritual director are working as a team, in my experience, it is not difficult to keep the roles clear with regular communication.

I should mention, however, that there is some danger for psychologists who are formed in a different psychological and/or faith tradition. I am aware of some who explicitly state that their model is to blend therapy and direction in the same process, not distinguishing the two, which I feel risks less than optimal progress in both areas.

 

To read more, Please Click here.

With Christmas rapidly approaching, the season can quickly become engulfed in present madness, forgetting what the day is supposed to be about.  Keynoter Daniel O'Leary notices this disturbing trend, noting how easy it is to be seduced by the season.  He writes:

Christmas disturbs adults with profound dilemmas for the soul. How do we resolve that tension between the real and the really real, that call from another place to be answered in this place? Are we open to sacrificing what we are, for what we may become? These quiet questions, all too easily stifled in the frantic lists of Christmas expectation, still carry, for the open soul, a disturbing persistence.

 O'Leary isn't the only one aware, he quotes in his article Ron Rolheiser, "God help any of us if we become so dulled or self-protective, that we are no longer soul-chained to worlds beyond us."

While we keep on trying to trust in this perennial promise of peace, in the creative absence between the "now" and the "not yet", we will try to believe with all our hearts this Christmas, that a blossoming of the individual soul, a transformation of our society and planet, is already happening; that this holding together of "the seen and the unseen" is secure within us.

To read more of this article from The Tablet, Please Click here.

If you have thoughts about the Christmas Season, what it means and what it should mean, please share your thoughts with us.

Spiritual Directors International continues to create opportunities for collegial multifaith dialogue about spiritual companionship. The October 30, 2008 Leadership Institute was held at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA.

"The Many & The One: Multi-Faith and Interfaith Sensitivities in Spiritual Direction and Formation" with Carol A. Fournier, NCC & Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit  provided a valuable day of reflection and learning with a global, contemplative group. I was challenged, nurtured by deep conversations, and willing to engage subtleties of multifaith and interfaith spiritual direction and formation. Presenters and participants all added richness to the fall 2008 Spiritual Directors International Leadership Institute.

Please share your questions and reflections!

If you are viewing with Internet Explorer:

Please click on Play on the Movie below for the Peru slideshow, presented in high definition (for faster internet connections). 

More and more Chaplains are being called upon for Hospice patients.  In fact, according to Continuum Hospice Care and Visiting Nurse Service of New York, two major hospice providers, Chaplain services have doubled in New York just in the past four years.

Patients in their final hours enjoy the comfort brought by this compassionate stranger who holds their hand and speaks to them, whether about the birds outside their window, losses or past regrets, guilt of leaving their family, or of being ready, or not so ready, to die.

Healthcare and religion experts agree, spiritual care comforts terminal patients; and because of the diverse population and their beliefs, Chaplains undergo training in accepting all patients' beliefs. No preaching to the patient, just care, comfort, an ear to listen, and words to help.

Bedside counseling provides a unique bond between the Chaplain and the hospice patient. "A vulneriblity to death is my first bond with my patient," says the Reverend Kai Okada, "We are there to be there. That is the point. It is my job to stay when there is no answer."

 

To read more about Hospice Chaplains and Beside Counseling in the New York Times, Please Click here.

To comment on this blog, share your own thoughts and feelings, please click here to post.

The December 2008 issue of Presence includes the reflection "Agape" by Jane Korins in which she refers to Picasso painting, Mother and Son. What reflections does the Picasso painting evoke in you? Click on the comments link below to tell your story about mother and child.

"While a patient, Rabbi Karff noticed that the Hospital is often just as demoralizing for employees as it is for patients. He wondered how the sense of calling, the sense of sacred vocation, that originally brought healthcare workers to the field could be rekindled.  He wondered how a sense of dignity could be restored to healthcare workers and patients alike."

To read more about spirit at work in health care, continue reading the above article by Spiritual Directors International member Margaret Benefiel, Healthcare as a sacred vocation.

  Margaret Benefiel, author of Healthcare as a sacred vocation.

 If you would like to meet Rabbi Karff, join us in Houston, Texas on April 19th, 2009 for the Spiritual Directors International pre-conference "Spiritual Direction in Health care Institute".  Rabbi Karff will be the midday meal keynote speaker.