When I tell people I have a spiritual direction practice the most common response I hear is: “what is spiritual direction?” Below is a brief explanation of spiritual direction as I practice it.

When Thomas Merton was master of scholastics at the Monastery at Gethsemani in 1962, he remarked that “everyone should get spiritual direction.” This was a wildly radical notion for its time. Back ...

In one of the cabinets of my office, I keep a small glass holder big enough for a single tea light candle. I received it my first semester of seminary, during which I'd taken a class called Spiritual ...

Therese Taylor-Stinson is the managing member of the Spiritual Directors of Color Network, Ltd., which she founded in 2008. The group has produced three books: Embodied Spirits, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody ...

1. Spiritual direction is an interpersonal relationship in which we learn how to grow, live, and love in the spiritual life. 2. Spiritual direction involves a process through which one person helps ...

William A. “Bill” Barry, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, spiritual director, psychologist and author based in Massachusetts. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1950, studied philosophy in Germany from 1953 ...

Background: She grew up on Long Island, graduated from the State University at Stony Brook and has a master's in educational psychology from the University at Albany. She came to Albany in 1974 for a ...

A few years ago, Casper ter Kuile sat across from a woman and told her he did not want to pray on his knees. She suggested, instead, that he try standing up, with his hands open, in the position used ...

Turning to a spiritual practice or the Divine of your understanding provides comfort in times of relationship stress. It can be the ultimate first aid for heartache; a clearinghouse for your ...

A candle burns in Rabbi Amy Eilberg’s study. It’s early afternoon, but the room seems as calm as midnight. Eilberg sits silently with her hands clasped in her lap. In the large picture window behind ...

Many years ago in Baltimore I heard Pete Seeger play the five-string banjo. I was seized with the conviction that I must do it too. I was in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University at the time and ...

The second spiritual work of mercy is to “counsel the doubtful.” We find this work of mercy throughout the New Testament, particularly in Saint Paul’s epistles. Generally speaking, each of Saint ...