How do we move deeper along the path of seeking the Divine? How do we understand God’s presence and action in our lives? What are ways in which we can connect with God? How do I tend my soul?
These are all questions that humans have had since time immemorial. For millennia, people have sought guidance from others in matters of the spiritual life. Contemporary spiritual direction is a descendant of this ancient tradition.
Spiritual direction is a holistic contemplative art in which a person meets with a director at regular intervals, usually once a month, and speaks about whatever is alive for them in their spiritual life: joys, struggles, new found insights, periods of lush spiritual experience and periods of spiritual aridity. Sometimes one’s spiritual life has come crashing down and they want someone to help them sort through the rubble, and sometimes people want to rebuild a beautiful and life-giving narrative. God is present in the extraordinary and mundane aspects of our lives, and seeing the Divine presence in all aspects of our life can help us to exist as more loving, gracious, and compassionate people.
Spiritual direction is not simply another specialty to tend a slice of our fragmented lives, but is a process which seeks to integrate our fragmented selves: mind, heart, body, spirit; the conscious and unconscious. By working to integrate our fragmented lives, we can heal the deepest and fullest expression of human life: the soul and the soul’s connection with the Divine.
As a shepherd of souls, I serve as a spiritual guide for two communities, and at the same time, I offer spiritual direction and guidance to individuals. I received my spiritual direction training at the Spiritual Renewal Center in Syracuse, New York
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Matthew van Maastricht 