Letter from the Director

Schedules and Programs

Mission Statement

What is Spiritual Direction?

A Tour of the Facilities

Contacts

Driving Directions

Contributions and Donations

Survey

Other Links

Photos

One of the services offered through the Spiritual Life Center is Spiritual Direction, which is in fact a "companioning" process, in which you are invited to reflect, deepen, and savor your relationship with God, through a process of shared reflection with a "director." The structure of the relationship is designed to provide a spiritual friendship with a trained professional, who listens, provides resources, and companionship on your spiritual journey. Spiritual Direction is a way to bring to prayer life-decisions, challenges in work and relationships, and to continue to grow in understanding both God and yourself more deeply. As Fr. Frank Houkek, S.J. describes in his book Guided by the Spirit: A Jesuit Perspective on Spiritual Direction, it is "A conversation, a dialogue, between two people in which one person aids another, often by a process of question and answer, to express his or her experience of personal faith and personal mystery." The Spiritual Life Center provides spiritual direction with both lay and religious professionals, as well as a meeting place for direction in the Catherine Teresa Garnett Counseling Center.

What is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual Direction is:

• based in the faith that God acts concretely in our world, and that all direction has its origin in God's love for us and desire to be known by us.
• a companioning process, in which you are invited to notice, savor, and deepen your ability to listen to God's direction for you and those in your life.
• a fully human, personal relationship characterized by a foundation of mutual trust and respect, warmth and genuine care, honesty and openness, whose purpose is a full creative response to one's spiritual relationship with God, self, and others.
• a contemplative, confidential relationship grounded in mutual, God-centered listening to the unique spiritual direction already unfolding in all aspects of your life and prayer.

What is a Spiritual Companion?

A Spiritual Companion is:

• a professionally trained individual who helps the person notice and respond to the movement of God as experienced in prayer and in the events of everyday life.
• a listening, supportive person who creates an atmosphere where one can look honestly at his or her relationship with God as it is lived out in everyday life.
• a person who is rooted in a community of faith and a living spiritual tradition that integrates contemporary developments in spirituality, as well as the arts and social sciences, to nurture, challenge and shape faith.
• The frequency of visits varies from person to person, and will be established together once you have begun meeting.
• Financial need will not prohibit anyone from participating in spiritual direction, though it is suggested that you consider a nominal contribution to the Spiritual Life Center to help cover the operating costs of this ministry, to be determined mutually at the time of the meeting.