I discovered two new things during my annual silent retreat: a little bit of anchovy on pizza tastes great, and joy lives in the heart of God.  

As I was driving to the Whidbey Institute for the retreat, I stopped for dinner. “Would you like anchovies on your pizza?” the waiter asked. I paused. Seated at a table by myself, no family member or friend was there to hold their nose and say, “Heck no. Hold the anchovies.” In that instance, my retreat began. Do I want to go with the familiar, or move into the new? Stepping out of my comfort zone, I answered, “Yes, please. Include some anchovies.” And you know what? I liked the salty, savory, slightly fishy taste. Even more importantly, I enjoyed discovering something new. Unearthing new joys became the theme of the retreat.

Meeting daily with a gentle and wise spiritual director helped me clear space to notice how choosing the familiar can become an unhealthy habit, even in prayer. My spiritual director gave me permission to “stoke the fires of joy,” when my tendency in a world of war, poverty, and unemployment is to worry and despair. She offered a quote from David Spangler that I found particularly helpful, “Joy is a quality that by its nature reaches out to more than just ourselves. It enlarges us, expands us, gives us a reason to keep on living and striving … Joy does not lead me to escape. It leads me to embrace the world with all its suffering and all its wonder and creative powers.” 

God surprised me daily with little joys like anchovies, and big joys like the felt sense of the heart of God: not only holding the suffering of the world, but also the deepest, sweetest, and saltiest joy. 

Do you have a story about how you cultivate joy in your life and in your spiritual direction ministry and service? Please share your story by offering comments in the reply section of the blog.

Spiritual Directors International offers educational videos aimed at the general public to tell the story of spiritual direction, which is also known as spiritual companionship, spiritual guidance, spiritual accompaniment.

Do you seek spiritual direction or compassionate listener? Are you asking ...

• Where do I start?
• Why is a spiritual director or guide important?
  
• How do I choose someone to contact?

The video "How to Seek and Find a Spiritual Director with Pegge Bernecker" answers questions about how to find a spiritual director, step by step. Please share this video with your colleagues, local religious and spiritual institutions, hospital, organizations that offer spiritual care; seekers, family, friends, students, and everyone seeking a spiritual director or guide.

Pegge Bernecker lives on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, USA. She is an author, spiritual director, and the editor of Listen: A Seekers Resource for Spiritual Direction, a FREE publication from Spiritual Directors International.

Additional resources you may find helpful:

•  Seek and Find: A Worldwide Resource Guide of Available Spiritual Directors is an online, comprehensive, global listing of more than 5,000 spiritual directors and guides. Using interactive Google maps, you can search anywhere in the world.

• FREE one hour Spiritual Directors International Teleconference “How to Seek and Find a Spiritual Director” November 10, 2009 at 12:00 EST; 5:00 GMT/UTC. To learn more, view additional teleconference dates, or RSVP, click here.

To be the first to view new educational videos, add your name to the YouTube subscription service for sdiworld videos.

Spiritual Directors International offers educational videos aimed at the general public to tell the story of spiritual direction, which is also known as spiritual companionship, spiritual guidance, spiritual accompaniment.

Kristen Hobby is a spiritual director living in Melbourne, Australia. Kristen describes formal as well as informal spiritual guidance and answers the question, "Who would benefit from spiritual direction?"

Therese Taylor-Stinson is a Presbyterian spiritual director living in the Washington, DC area. She answers questions, including, "Who do you speak with about extraordinary experiences of God?" and "How might we learn how to pray from African spiritual traditions?" 

To be the first to view new educational videos, add your name to the YouTube subscription service for sdiworld videos.

Thank you Tara Owens from Colorado, USA and Pegge Bernecker from Alaska, USA for spear-heading this educational outreach program!

As Muslims prepare for the holy month of Ramadan, we can reflect upon words from Spiritual Directors International member Sheikh Jamal Rahman. In 2009, Rahman, together with Kathleen Schmitt Elias, and Ann Holmes Redding authored the most recent book in the Spiritual Directors International imprint series, Out of Darkness, Into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.

We learn:

In Islam, whose name means surrender to God, the central goal is to live our lives in the spirit of surrender to our Creator. Seekers of any religious tradition have a similar desire to achieve union with Divine Reality. Whether we call it surrender, redemption, union, or quest for inner freedom, the journey is the same. It is a lifelong adventure, and along the way there are many twists and turns, many opportunities to get lost or go astray. There are no maps to guide the human heart, but in every religion there are teachers and basic guidebooks—scriptures and sacred texts that point the way toward Mystery. In Islam, we have the Quran. We also have fourteen centuries of wisdom distilled from the Holy Book by Islamic sages, mystics, and teachers. From the Quran we learn, for instance, of the delights that we will enjoy in the Divine Presence if we have learned to bring our hearts “turned in devotion to God” (50:33), and from the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Maulana Jelaluddin Rumi we learn what that devotion should look like. When a woman asked her lover if he loved her as much as he loved himself, he replied that his whole being was so full of her that there was nothing left of his own existence except his name. Feel toward God, Rumi says, as that lover felt toward his beloved.

To read more about Out of Darkness, Into Light, click here.

In preparation for the holy month of Ramadan, Maggie Galehouse reports for Houston Belief published by The Houston Chronicle:

The family looks forward to this time of spiritual and physical purification, and all generations are eager to help define it. Ramadan is a month of introspection, they say. A month of mercy, patience and self-discipline. A time to refrain from unkindness and dishonesty. “The whole point is to carry this behavior on beyond Ramadan, to raise your God consciousness,” said Aisha Jalali, who has five children with her husband, Waseem Ahmed.

To read the entire article, click here.

When we make a retreat, or simply live the details of our everyday life, a spiritual director can be a helpful companion.

Father Kent Hemberger, a member of Spiritual Directors International living in Wichita, Kansas, USA, is interviewed in the story, "Wichita Priest to Bring New Spiritual Direction to the Diocesan Spiritual Life Center." CNA: Catholic News Network reports:

"God’s voice isn’t always easy to recognize, especially when it comes in a whisper, or in the form of silence. That’s when a second, trained pair of ears, like Father Kent Hemberger’s, can help. ...

"Directed retreats for individuals follow Ignatian spirituality, which prefers to “Let God deal directly with the retreatant.” The compiler of the Spiritual Exercises, and a gifted spiritual director, St. Ignatius has been described by Pope Benedict XVI as being above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God, and a man of profound prayer. “You see what the person comes to the retreat with and what they desire, and then allow the Holy Spirit to direct the retreat,” he said. “I meet with them every day and help them discern what God is trying to tell them in their personal lives. From what I hear, I then give suggestions for their prayer that day."

To read the entire article, click here.

One of the presents I received for my sixth birthday was Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne, a collection of poems. The poems were funny and several contained words that were unfamiliar. For example, "Sneezles" describes a physician's efforts to diagnose Christopher Robin's illness. The doctor wonders if Christopher Robin has sneezles or wheezles or reazles or even phtheezles. I remember laughing when I read "Sneezles" and I usually read the poem over and over again. However, my very favorite poem in the book was "Solitude." As a six year old with a very verbal two year old brother, I realized that my true inner self craved solitude "a place where I could go, where there is no one, but me." The need for silence and solitude continued as I grew and when I was an adult, I finally was able to create a designated place where I could have time alone--my desk. I inherited the desk from my younger daughter when she went to college. Since the desk is not an "elegant piece of furniture" I have decorated in ways to make it completely my own--I have taped scripture, a tiny picture my younger daughter drew, an e-mail from my older daughter, and a challenge from one of my pastor husband's sermons. There are paint marks from numerous projects--a small container for pens and pencils, rocks, paint brushes, prayer beads and my always open Bible. Everything that I do at my desk connects me to God--prayer, drawing, painting a picture, writing a story, quilting or embroidery. I also have an elevated view of the woods behind my house since my desk is on the second floor. I watch the trees blossom anew each spring and change color in the fall--the rhythm of the seasons and the 24 hour cycle of a day are natural rituals that provide daily nourishment. I cherish my special place which began in my heart decades ago and remains a "spot where I can go where there is no one else but me ... and God."

This spiritual direction meeting was different. I arrived as usual for my monthly visit with my spiritual director. Instead of sitting in a chair, she invited me for a walk around the neighborhood. It was spring, and I had been fretting about how to finance going to graduate school in theology in the fall.

My spiritual director asked some standard questions, “Where is God in the resistance?” and “What’s happening in your prayer life?” She listened attentively to my responses. Then she did something atypical. She invited me to walk very slowly and notice the trees in the neighborhood. In silence, we walked together, listening for God in a new way: in the breezes blowing through the budding branches. Actually, listening for God in the trees was not new at all. During that extraordinarily ordinary walk on a sidewalk around a city block, my soul reconnected with the way I bonded with God as a child in the woods behind our house.

Years after my first walking spiritual direction session –- during divinity school –- my spiritual director invited me to find a tree on campus and visit the tree regularly. This was another soul-tending invitation. Spending time with a big, old, oak tree taught me about God’s faithfulness and what it means to be related as children of God, no matter what. Silently visiting the oak tree helped me move from classroom head-learning of theology to my soul’s understanding of the value of spiritual direction for creating peace and understanding.

Fast forward to July 2009. Thirty-six people gathered at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, USA to learn about spiritual direction in the Abrahamic traditions. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian participants remembered our roots and stretched to learn from each other’s similarities and differences. Participants were invited to notice the trees on the beautiful campus. Verses from the Bible and Quran referring to trees, roots, and branches offered participants ancient words to nourish their souls. During a closing ritual, we planted a tree to commemorate our time together, “Building Bridges of Understanding.” Together we offered gratefulness for the opportunity to learn and grow. Who knows! Perhaps a future theology student will find soul sustenance from the serviceberry tree we planted.

Do you have a story about a favorite place or memory that nourishes the roots of your soul? Please share your story by offering comments in the reply section.

PHOTO: George Krol and Liz Mahoney add compost to the serviceberry tree planted on St. Michael's College campus in Colchester, Vermont.