Trust for the Journey

Following our dreams is part of being human. Every one of us aspires to do something, be someone. And yet, the quotation by Günter Kunert, from this week's postcard tells us that the journey is already under way...

"Wohin auch immer wir reisen, wir suchen, wovon wir träumten, und finden doch stets nur uns selbst."

Which being translated, means: "Wherever we travel, we seek what we dreamed of, but always find only ourselves."

Every day we are on this Earth, we are adding new adventures, new experiences to our lives. And we always, always take our past experiences along with us. Every human being is the sum of their experiences. And these past experiences will inevitably have an impact on how we perceive what is in front of us today, now. That is how we learn, how we grow.

I don't think it is possible to "start afresh" to leave our pasts behind us. At least not completely. Because our brains do not get wiped clean of our memories. But it is possible to process our experiences, to discern their meaning, to learn from them, and then to move on, enriched by them.

Both therapy and spiritual direction help with this process. When I started my spiritual direction training, we were given a beautiful poem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on the first week of the three year course.

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

If we can trust, we will find ourselves in the course of our journey through life.

Asking for Directions

For the first time since I started this project, I find myself disagreeing with the quote of the week, by Paul Watzlawick. "Wer zu sich selbst finden will, darf andere nicht nach dem Weg fragen"

Which means: If you want to find yourself, do not ask others for directions.

Yes, I understand that every person is unique and each must find their own path on the spiritual journey.

BUT, and it is a very big but, I strongly believe that we all need support along the way. Which is why being a member of a spiritual / religious community is vital. It is possible to learn a lot by reading or searching the internet, but if we do not have other people to bounce our ideas and conclusions off, we might be led up the garden path by our own imperfect understanding.

I agree that asking others for directions may be a mistake, if we rely on those directions alone, and do not have our own thoughts and ideas. But for me, the spiritual journey is a combination of individual thought and sharing in community.

Which is why I find spiritual direction (which is really a misnomer) so valuable. If you have a spiritual director (which I have for the past seven years) they will accompany you on your journey, listening with full attention to what you have to say, and discerning the movement of the Spirit in your life. They do not direct, they do not judge, they accompany and suggest. Without my spiritual director, I would have been lost, would never have found myself, would never have had the courage for the journey.

I commend being in direction to all spiritual seekers.

Discerning the Spirit

I am currently doing a wonderful course at the London Centre for Spirituality, which is training me to become a spiritual director. It's not like an ordinary training course, more like my ministry training, in so far as it is as much about formation as it is about learning.

Our session this week was very deep and rich, concerning the role of the Spirit in spiritual direction. I believe that whether the Spirit works uniquely through human beings, or is present throughout the universe doesn't really matter. What I do believe is that the Spirit is an active divine presence who is with us always. So, I am warming to the idea that in any spiritual direction session, there are three present - the director, the directee, and the Spirit. And that it is the Spirit who really does the direction; the director's job is to hold the space, and to guide / accompany the directee to enable him/her to discern where the Spirit is at work in his/her life. It is also up to us as directors to discern where the Spirit is present / working during the session, and to hold the silence, or choose the words, that will enable this.

This is not head work. This is heart work. It is based on trust: trust between director and directee, and trust by both in the process, and in the Spirit. I have been a directee myself for three and a half years now, and know from experience what a rich process it can be. I feel so very privileged to be able to pay it forward.