Month: June, 2009What is a “program of life” and why is it important to my spiritual progress?
A: One of the enemies of good spiritual direction is excessive subjectivity. We all have urgent personal issues that come and go; they occupy our attention and energy intensely for brief periods, but they really don’t touch the deeper regions of our character and personality. When a child is sick, it preoccupies us. When someone at work is having problems that affect the rest of us, it preoccupies us. Sometimes issues like this are important enough to deserve ample attention during spiritual direction, but not usually. And yet, because they are on our mind, we will naturally tend to let them dominate our conversation during spiritual direction. This can inhibit us from the kind of deep, systematic, and structural work that spiritual direction is really designed to foster. The headlines of our lives change every day, just like the news headlines. But headlines are by nature superficial. We need to make sure that we don’t waste all of our spiritual direction talking about superficial headlines. This is where the Program of Life comes in; it helps us to keep our ongoing spiritual work objective and profound. To understand how it does that, we only have to understand what it is. The term Program of Life has some siblings: Rule of Life, Reform of Life, Plan for Spiritual Growth, Game Plan for the Soul, Business Plan for the Soul… In all cases, the core meaning remains the same. The Program of Life is a tool that helps us personalize the principles of spiritual progress: Prayer - Everyone needs to pray, but how often should I pray, what type of prayer should I focus on, what factors are making prayer hard for me? Every individual person, because of their life-situation, background, education, and temperament will find individualized answers to those questions. Virtue - Likewise, everyone needs to become more Christ-like through the practice of Christian virtue. But which virtues do I most need to develop and how exactly can I work on them, which habits of selfishness are most deeply rooted in me and how can I diminish them, what is the underlying cause of my most frequent sins and faults? Again, every individual will answer these questions differently State in Life - The same goes for the fulfillment of God’s will through fidelity to the responsibilities of one’s state in life. Every father needs to guide, discipline, and spend time with his children; every husband needs to give his life for his wife, as Christ gave his life for the Church; every professional needs to be another Christ in their workplace – but these ideals will take on unique (and uniquely beautiful) characteristics as they are incarnated in the unique and dynamic reality of every individual. The Program of Life consists of the personalized answers to all these questions, phrased and arranged in such a way that they become a guide for daily living. The Program of Life, then, is like a spiritual workout program that insures spiritual growth because it is customized to the individual’s needs and opportunities. When we meet with our spiritual director, it is good to start by going over the headlines, but, reviewing together the main points of the Program of Life is the real path to consistent, substantial progress. Three other things are worth noting.
How do I find and select a spiritual director?
A. Finding a spiritual director usually follows four steps: First, you need to remember what spiritual direction is all about. The role of a spiritual director is not to tell you what to do, the way a boss or a military drill sergeant does. Rather, a spiritual director helps you discover and accept what God is doing in your life and what God is asking you to do. Spiritual direction is an ongoing conversation between you, the director, and the Holy Spirit about how you can know, love, and follow Christ more fully. Second, you need to understand the necessary qualities of a good spiritual director. Objectively, the person needs to be prudent, practical, knowledgeable (about the faith and the spiritual life), and balanced. This is the kind of person who is an excellent listener, and who is not afraid to be honest and demanding with you, and to make sure you are being honest with yourself. The person doesn’t need to be a genius. They should tend to be optimistic without being a polyanna. They should in some way show enthusiasm for the things of God. They need to be someone energetically engaged in their own pursuit of holiness, so that they speak not only from theory, but also from experience. Subjectively, it needs to be someone you can trust – either someone you already trust, or someone who easily and naturally wins your trust during the first few times you meet. Third, pray. Remember that your Father in heaven “already knows what you need before you ask him.” Your heartfelt desire to go deeper in your spiritual life is already a gift from God. He will guide you towards someone who can help satisfy it. Fourth, start looking. Usually it is a good idea to start by looking for a priest. The most common way is to come across someone by reference: the recommendation of someone you know, the substantial and helpful preaching that you have consistently heard from him, his written material that has helped you considerably, the priest who spends a lot of time hearing confessions and has shown a pastor’s heart to you in the confessional… By now you are probably already thinking of someone you could ask (it may be your pastor, or a priest friend, or someone you have heard about). If not, try asking around or looking around for a respected retreat director in your area, or an esteemed chaplain at a school. Sometimes retired priests are good candidates. If someone who is not a priest comes immediately to mind as you think about who to ask (an older lay person, a religious, a professor you once had…), that is fine. John Paul II’s first spiritual director (when he was a college student) was a layman. Generally, a priest will have more spiritual experience himself and a more in-depth theological training, but that is not always the case. If you find a lay person of the same gender as yourself who fits the above description and is willing to mentor you spiritually, great. Once you find someone (it may take some time), ask them if they would be willing to be your spiritual director, or at least to help guide you in your pursuit of holiness. But remember, even when you have found a spiritual director, you are still the person in charge of your life-project. Sometimes we expect (or want) the spiritual director to do everything for us – all the thinking and all the deciding. Not so. The director is like a consultant. Unless you are taking the initiative, being open and sincere, and responding to the director’s guidance and suggestions with healthy docility, you will end up finding yourself hopping around from director to director in a vain effort to grasp holiness without stepping outside your comfort zone. Abandonment XIV – God’s Word Written on the Heart
O life of Jesus! including and extending beyond all the ages of time! Life working new wonders of grace at every moment! If not one is capable of understanding all that could be written of the earthly life of Jesus, all that He did and said while He was on earth – if the Gospel merely outlines a few of its features – how many Gospels would have to be written to record the history of all the moments of this mystical life of Jesus Christ which multiplies miracles to infinity and eternity! If the beginning of His natural life is so hidden and yet so fruitful, what can be said of the effect of that life of which every age of the world is the history? The Holy Spirit has pointed out some moments in the ocean of time in the infallible words of the Holy Scriptures. In them we see the hidden and mysterious ways by which He has manifested Jesus Christ to the world. Amid the confusion of the races of men, we can follow the channels and veigns that distinguish the origin, race and genealogy of the Firstborn. The entire Old Testament is but an outline of the profound mystery of this divine work; it contains only what is necessary to reach the advent of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit kept all the rest hidden among the treasures of His wisdom. From this vast sea of divine action, only a tiny stream appears, and when this has reached Jesus, it is lost again in the Apostles and swallowed up in the Book of Revelation; so that the history of this divine action, consisting of the life of Jesus in the souls of the righteous to the very end of time, can only be perceived by faith alone. As the truth of God has been made known by word, the love of God is made known by deeds. The Holy Spirit continues to carry on the work of our Savior. While helping the Church to preach the Gospel of Christ, He himself is writing His own Gospel on the hearts of the faithful. All their actions, all the moments of their lives, make up the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. The souls of the saints are the paper, their sufferings and actions are the ink. The Holy Spirit by the pen of His actions, writes a living Gospel, but we can only read it when it has been taken out of the press of this life and published on the day of eternity. Oh! wonderful story! What a glorious book the Holy Spirit is now writing! It is still on the press. There is never a day when the type is not being set, ink applied, and sheets printed. But we are still in the night of faith. The paper is blacker than the ink, and there is great confusion in the type. It is written in letters which belong to another world, and there is no understanding of it but in Heaven itself. If we could perceive this life of God, and see all creatures, not as they are in themselves, but as instruments of His will, and if again, we could perceive His life in all His creatures and understand how His action animates and impels them all to press forward in different ways, mingling them, assembling them, scattering them, yet pushing them all to the same point by different means, we should recognize that everything in this divine work has its reason, its measure, its connection with God’s overall work. But how can we read this book whose letters are foreign to us, whose type is reversed and whose pages are blotted with ink? If the blending of the twenty-six letters of our alphabet results in such incomprehensible diversity that they can be used to write an almost infinite number of different volumes, all admirable, who can explain what God is doing in the universe? Who can read and understand the meaning of so vast a book in which every single letter has its own particular significance and contains in its littleness the most profound mysteries? Mysteries can neither be seen nor felt. They are objects of faith. Faith alone judges their worth and truth only by their source, because they are so obscure in themselves that all their external appearances serve only to conceal them and mislead those who judge by reason alone. Teach me, Divine Spirit, to read in this book of life. I desire to become Your disciple and, like a little child, to believe what I cannot understand and cannot see. It is enough for me that it is my Lord who speaks. He says this! He pronounces that! He arranges the letters in such a fashion! He makes Himself heard in such a manner! That is enough. I judge that all is exactly as He says. I do not see the reason, but He is the infallible truth; therefore all that He says, all that He does is true. He groups His letters to form a word, and different letters again to form another word. The word may have three letters, or it may have six. Then no more are necessary, and fewer would be nonsense. He alone who knows all the thoughts of men can bring these letters together to express it. Everything has significance, everything has a perfect meaning. This line purposely ends here. Not a comma is missing nor is there one useless period. I believe that now, but in the glory to come, when so many mysteries will be revealed, I shall see plainly what I understand so dimly. Then what appears so complicated, so perplexing, so foolish, so inconsistent, so imaginary, will charm and delight me eternally with the beauty, order, knowledge, wisdom and the inconceivable wonders I shall find in it. Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade - Purchase The Joy of Full Surrender What is the difference between confession and spiritual direction?
A: Confession and spiritual direction are like partially overlapping circles: they share some common characteristics, but their centers, their essences, are distinct. The Distinction of Confession The essence of confession is the sacramental grace that Christ gives to our soul through the ministry of his priest. When we open our hearts to him through sincere repentance and honest confession of our sins within the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive an infusion of grace that forgives our sins, strengthens our spiritual weakness (especially regarding the behaviors that we confessed), and increases the bond of our supernatural friendship with Christ. It also exercises and therefore increases the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity. In confession, God acts on our soul the way a surgeon acts on a patient: directly, profoundly, in ways that we could never reproduce by merely natural efforts. This is why we don’t have to worry even if the priest who hears our confession is taciturn, deaf, grumpy, in mortal sin, or even (God forbid) harsh. The priest is God’s instrument of grace within this sacrament, not the source of that grace. The Distinction of Spiritual Direction The essence of spiritual direction is solid advice. The spiritual director helps us see more clearly what God is asking of us and how he is acting in our lives. The director also helps us see objectively the quality of our response to God: are we being docile and humble, or are we just tricking ourselves into doing what we feel like? The spiritual director is like the physical therapist that helps us identify the exercises we need to be doing in order to grow spiritually, and then helps us adjust our spiritual program of work in order to keep it effective and on track. This is invaluable advice, but it is noticeably different than that surgeon who actually reconstructs a torn ligament or rebuilds a broken lung. This is one of the reasons why nothing inhibits lay people from becoming excellent spiritual directors. Ordination is not required, just solid training in spiritual theology, ample personal experience in the spiritual life, and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge (discernment) and counsel. But God has reserved the sacrament of confession to his ordained priests, in order to guarantee that he acts directly therein. The Overlap Nevertheless, although the essences differ, the secondary characteristics of confession and spiritual direction can often overlap. A good confessor gives more than absolution; he also utilizes the sacred moment in which this person is opening their heart to God to remind them of God’s goodness, love, and wisdom. If he detects some confusion or frustration, he can also give sound advice, just as a spiritual director would do. If the penitent has questions or doubts, the confessor answers and resolves them. The atmosphere of faith in which the sacrament takes place is incomparably propitious for the action of the Holy Spirit and the penitent’s docility to that action. In past centuries, in fact, lay people usually received spiritual direction within the sacrament. They would go to the same priest regularly for confession, and this “confessor” became their spiritual father, their spiritual director. In more recent times, however, the practice of having separate spiritual direction, which used to be reserved for consecrated religious, has spread to the laity as well. This is linked to the Church’s growing emphasis on the lay vocation as a vocation to holiness, just as much as a religious vocation is a call to holiness. Only the states of life differ. Some priests who are excellent confessors even prefer to give spiritual direction within the sacrament of confession. Combining the two makes for a longer stay in the confessional, but it can be fruitful. If you are having trouble finding a spiritual director, you may want to ask around to find out which priests in your area have a reputation for being wise confessors. You can then go to confession with them, and in addition to confessing your sins, you can also mention in the sacrament that you are trying to follow a program of spiritual growth. Then include as part of your confession the areas of spiritual work in which you have had difficulty in recent weeks. These difficulties may be imperfections (unconscious faults) more than sins, but by confessing them you express the delicacy of your love for Christ, and you give the confessor a greater understanding of the state of your soul. Then he will have a chance to give you solid advice and guidance before giving you absolution. You can use that advice to adjust your program of spiritual work for the coming weeks. In this way, your confessor can double as your spiritual director. The disadvantage of this arrangement, however, is the lack of time to converse. Often what is most helpful in spiritual direction is the focused conversation about spiritual things. Necessarily, the parameters of the sacrament curtail this kind of discussion. Of course, the contrary situation also arises. Oftentimes, if one’s spiritual director is also a priest, it is quite natural to finish spiritual direction with the sacrament of confession. In this case, the priest will take less time to offer advice and encouragement, which has already been given in spiritual direction. The disadvantage of this arrangement (which is certainly not a requirement), is the tendency to dilute one’s awareness of God’s action through the sacrament, a penchant for considering, the sacrament merely as the frosting on the cake of spiritual direction, at least on a subconscious level. Keep in mind the essential difference between confession and spiritual direction. If you do that, then the overlap of secondary characteristics, which can take as many different forms as there are people, will always enhance and never confuse your experience of both. Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer – Book Recommendation
By Father Thomas Dubay, SM As in his other popular writings, Father Thomas Dubay’s style is profound and meditative yet clear and readable. He gives an overview of the spiritual life for anyone seeking to grow in the love of God and neighbor. An expert on the teachings and writings of the two great mystical doctors of prayer and the spiritual life, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Dubay gives solid practical advice for a deepening moral and spiritual conversion, and for a radical growth in holiness. “There are millions of mediocre ‘good Christians’ who need to hear the message of this book, which is the message of all the saints, about the universal call to holiness. Father Dubay is one of the truest, wisest, and most trustworthy guides on the road.” To learn more or purchase this book, click HERE |
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Q: Dear Father John, what is a “Program of Life” and why is it important to my spiritual progress and Spiritual Direction?
Q: Dear Father John, what is the best way to find a Spiritual Director? Should it be your pastor? A friend? Or someone whom you do not know when you begin?
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever, ” says the Apostle (Hebrews 13:8). From the beginning of the world He was, as God, the source of the life of righteous souls. From the first moment of His incarnation, His humanity shared this prerogative of His divinity. He is working within us throughout our whole lives. The time that will elapse till the end of the world is but as a day, and this day abounds with His action. Jesus Christ lived, and lives still. He began in Himself and He continues in His saints a life that will never end.
Q: Dear Father John, what is the difference between confession and spiritual direction?
Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer
