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Guest author: Liz Budd Ellmann, MDiv
Tasting wine involves much more than your taste buds. In fact, the world of wine is a culture that speaks a specialized language familiar to connoisseurs yet foreign to most people who enjoy drinking a basic “red” or “white.” While riding my bicycle from winery to winery with several wine enthusiasts last weekend, I pondered how the language of prayer and spiritual direction is complex, like vineyard vocabulary. “Not having tasted a single cup of your wine, I'm already drunk,” writes the poet Rumi.
The listening involved in spiritual direction requires much more than our ears. Even the language of spiritual direction has many names: spiritual companionship, spiritual accompaniment, spiritual guidance, mashpia in Hebrew, and anam cara in Gaelic to name a few. Depending on the spiritual tradition, different words describe contemplation, prayer, and meditation. Much of the language has historical roots in the tradition that nurtured the spiritual practice of deep compassionate listening for God’s presence. No wonder ordinary folks get confused when they sense the longing to move closer to God, when even “God” is a word used to describe the indescribable!
While great things are being said about spiritual direction in esteemed places, like the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, not every journalist or editor has the vocabulary or theological understanding of the depth of spiritual care that is offered in prayer and spiritual direction. Nonetheless, I applaud Zev Chafets and Anndee Hochman for communicating the value of prayer and spiritual direction for today’s readers. In addition to print media attention, Pope Benedict in a recent video from Rome celebrates the importance of meeting with a spiritual guide, especially for young people.
The latest publicity encourages curiosity and the courage to “taste and see” what spiritual direction has to offer. Already, seekers have been dialing the Spiritual Directors International telephone number and visiting the Web site, searching for more information. One spiritual director told me she has received nine new inquiries, another more than twenty.
As novices discover spiritual direction, I invite you to patiently learn the language of how each person swirls, sniffs, savors, and sips his or her way into a relationship with the sacred.
Your comments on the publicity about spiritual direction are appreciated. To read others’ comments and add your own, simply create a reply...
10/01,2009, at 22:49
As an Australian Jesuit now engaged in the ministry of 'a retreat house on wheels' in a rural diocese of Victoria who once worked in our Province owned winery in the Clare Valley of South Australia, I relish the engaging image of wine in this editorial. Since I follow the Ignatian tradition of spiritual direction, the word 'savour' is the one which stands out in your title. Savouring a wine enables the drinker to experience all that the wine has to offer. As a spiritual director I constantly invite directees to 'savour' the depth of God's presence in their lives. Perhaps the title of this editorial might be expanded to read: gaze (look at the colour of the wine), swirl (to check the legs - depth of the wine), sniff, sip and savour (at length).
10/03,2009, at 23:06
How wonderful to hear the way you would expand the title! My husband and I visited the Jesuit winery in the Clare Valley several years ago and savored (at length) many of the wines. You are right. There is a savoring of the sniff, and then a deeper savoring of the sip. Thank you for bringing back sweet memories of the tour we received during our visit of Sevenhill Cellars including wandering among very old vines. A very special vineyard in South Australia. Will I see you during the upcoming Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, 03-09 December? I will be staying at Campion during the Parliament.
10/04,2009, at 02:44
I appreciate the sensual pleasures evoked by Liz Ellman's and Fr Richard Shortall's messages here. Feels as though we have all the 'equipment' necessary to step into deep listening. We just need to 'turn it on'. What triggers the 'on' switch is different for each individual. In my own Tibetan Buddhist Tradition, practiced in Ireland where I live, another feature of spiritual direction makes itself present. 'Translation'. Working in and honouring different spiritual traditions necessitates not only deep listening for 'common ground' but also translation of cultural and spiritual languages to hear and speak into the hearing of the other. A useful practice we do as part of our meditation groups is the inclusion of those we love, those we know, those we do NOT know, and particluarly those we have difficulty with, as well as 'all sentient beings'. This process helps me honour perspectives other than my own, and seek new ways of understanding difference, seeing where my own attachments are!