Spiritual Direction

What is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual direction is a contemplative practice in which one person (the director) accompanies another (the directee) on their spiritual journey. It’s not about giving advice or solving problems — it’s about deep listening, discernment, and exploring the sacred in everyday life.

It involves regular, intentional conversations where a person can reflect on their relationship with the Divine (however they understand it), the stirrings of the soul, and their experiences of meaning, vocation, faith, doubt or transition.

A spiritual director is trained to listen deeply and help the person notice where God, Spirit or Life might be moving in their life.

Impacts and Outcomes of Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction has a wide range of personal and spiritual benefits.

Greater Self-Awareness and Inner Clarity
People begin to see patterns in their lives and reactions, and they gain deeper insight into their desires, struggles, and decisions.
Deeper Connection to the Sacred
It helps individuals notice how the Divine is present and active in their lives and encourages a contemplative awareness in daily living.
Discernment and Life Direction
It supports people in making choices rooted in their values and spiritual truths and offers space to reflect on big transitions like vocation, retirement, and grief.
Emotional and Spiritual Healing
It provides a safe, confidential space to process grief, trauma, or joy and can restore a sense of peace, wholeness, and hope.
Integration of Faith and Life
It encourages living with authenticity and intention and strengthens one’s ability to align actions with beliefs.

Who Seeks Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual direction is for anyone on a spiritual journey — not just clergy or religious. People who often seek it out include:

  • Those in transition (grief, retirement, change of vocation).
  • People feeling spiritually dry, stuck, or distant from God.
  • Individuals discerning a calling, decision, or path forward.
  • Anyone desiring to deepen their prayer life or faith.
  • Those on a retreat or seeking spiritual nourishment.

It’s also common among:

  • Teachers, caregivers, chaplains, and community leaders.
  • People recovering from burnout.
  • Seekers from all traditions or none.

 

 

Current Spiritual Direction Programmes

A Retreat in Daily Life 

This Programme is Offered Online – Start Anytime

Experience the full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius entered into at home while going about your everyday life. This can be done over approximately thirty-five weeks, or a ninety-day at-home retreat. You connect with the Spiritual Director weekly via Zoom, or when possible, in person. To decide to enter this journey means making a commitment to a dedicated time of prayer each day and connecting with the Spiritual Director.

The retreat is offered, using Marlene Marburg’s contemporary expression of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in Grace Upon Grace. In this text, Marlene provides a rich, creative and fresh adaptation of the original Spiritual Exercises. Grace Upon Grace is not a book to read but a spiritual journey to take, being nourished by Marlene’s poetry and the invitation of the arts.

Director: Annette Arnold rsj

$80/hour excl. GST | $88/ hour incl. GST

 

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