Spiritual Direction
What is Spiritual Direction?
In our journeys back home
to God, true self, and true neighboring,
God offers a variety of supports and disciplines.
Among these means of grace is community. And within the greater context of such community, there is the more specific discipline which is spiritual direction —
a practice of partnered listening
that has roots going back
to the earliest days of the Church.
Spiritual Directors International offers the image of three chairs as a visual reminder of who is present during spiritual direction. In one chair, a seeker sits—desiring a deeper relationship with God. In a second chair, a spiritual director listens, inquires, and holds the space for the seeker to encounter the Holy Spirit—the true Spiritual Director—in the third chair.
In spite of its formal name, spiritual direction is not directive (as coaching is and can be) or therapeutic (as counseling is) as much as it is “one person assisting another in an intentional process of listening for the voice of God in a sustained relationship.” (Frederick Schmidt) To borrow from Carol Korschth as she defines Quaker “circles of trust” (a group form of spiritual companionship), spiritual direction is “a process by which an individual is heard into God’s truth for their life and living.”
Spiritual direction, then…
In spiritual direction, two people put their full attention to the work of God in one of their lives. A spiritual director listens with you as you listen to God…
In the frantic busyness of life, work, family, and ministry, spiritual direction holds a still, quiet, and intentional space each month in your schedule for listening deeply to what God has been speaking to you.
(Peter White, The Sabbath Life)
- provides a “safe place for attending to one’s ongoing process of transformation and surrender to God outside the public view and without any other agenda” (The Transforming Center)
- helps individual discern the more, the next God has for them as they pay attention to attention to the Inner Teacher
- provides sustained spiritual companionship that fosters a greater sense of intentionality in their walk with God, self and others
- is an important piece of holistic self-care
Explore Spiritual Direction with Us!
Jim and Kathy Reiter are both certified spiritual directors. Each offers individual and group spiritual direction…
- virtually via Zoom or Facetime,
- on-site (in the Bryan-College Station area), and
- at retreat locations.
We would welcome an opportunity to visit further — including a no cost session centered on the nature of spiritual direction… and where individuals see God working in their life. (Such a session has been helpful to many in discerning whether a) this is the right time for this kind of work in their life and b) whether there’s a good fit for our proceeding together.)
Upon committing to a relationship, directees are asked to make their own offering for spiritual direction — on a sliding scale of $25 to $75 per one-hour session.
To start the process, complete and submit the following form: