friarmike

Spiritual Direction

LEARNING

Well I am now on the final furlong in my journey of training as a Spiritual Director. I am enjoying a diverse group of women and men learning at the feet of the Franciscans in Canterbury. The last year has been tremendouse in terms of growing still further in self knowledge and in appreciating the way of the contemplative in our fast paced society.

One thing I have committed to do throughout the course is to approach it from a non academic perspective. Hence my assignments have been attempts to steer away from well constructed, cerebral essays and have included images, poems and deeply felt personal reflections. This has presented its challenges both for me as the author of my own reflective journey and for my tutor seeking to make sense of such submissions.

LISTENING

The course has been well structured for me - vaguely chaotic and lacking the normal intensity and seriousness of most learning courses I have participated on. I love the uncertainty that surrounds programme content combined with the scintillating insights of the various contributors, especially brother Peter.

He takes his stool, not a note to hand and then paints a picture from familiar scriptures that convey you to the very feet of Jesus. Much food is left for reflection - it is like leaving the feeding of the five thousand; fully nourished and with a doggy bag to boot!

LIVING

Now the adventure begins as I stretch my wings and begin work as a Spiritual Director. Accompanying people on their walk with God is wonderful. I am myself surprised by just how beneficial it has proved to me having access to a director. I came to this later in life, yet recognise just how valuable it would have been in earlier, and very troubled years.

The word Director does seem to put some people off. Yet really it is a companion on the journey, a listener. There is little actual direction a such. Rather a conversation, someone who draws out the strabnds of sprituality highlighted by God's spirit. And all of this rooted richly and deeply in God's word.

So another step on my contemplative journey is soon to be completed and I feel well made up. It will be a complete joy to meet and walk with those whos heart is always to journey deeper into God's heart. 

Follow my leader!

In a week in which government ministers have sought to ‘advise’ us, their electorate, about how we ‘ought’ to organise our lives in the purchase of petrol, we had all discovered that election to state office is not synonymous with the exercise of leadership.

I wonder what Frances Maude, or indeed the PM himself, was thinking when they advised the great general public constantly to top up our petrol tanks and the gathering and filling of various storage receptacles. Unconfirmed reports suggested some members of the general public were utilising jam jars! Can that be true or simply a press stunt? We have lost confidence in relying on the press as a source of uncontested truth.

On ‘Question Time’, the eloquent Simon Jenkins reflected how once he heard a government minister advising the public not to panic, he concluded now was indeed the time to panic and went to fill his car up ahead of a busy family weekend. 

Challenged by a minister over the government’s responsibility to give leadership, he did point out that a strike, although approved by ballot, had not been called, required seven days notice and both UNITE and the employers had accepted ACAS’ offer to facilitate further negotiations. His point, well made, was that the public can read the signs and recognise when they needed to respond to a crisis, rather than be driven by one of the government’s own making.

I wonder what it says about this country that we seem to prefer to submit all decision making to someone else? Are we unable to take responsibility for taking decisions for ourselves? Obviously we then need to accept responsibility for the outcome, good or bad. I wonder if dependence upon what has been an ever expanding welfare state has removed from individual consciousness that responsible decision taking for my life lays with me. 

This reluctance, whilst in part a product of the framework which establishes care from cradle to grave, is also fuelled by the rapid rise in a litigious mindset that wants to blame someone else for what happens to me. Life’s a bitch and all that!

The Contemplative Network is birthed in part in response to such a background. The Christian faith has fallen foul of the same disease. Congregations subcontracting leadership to a few platformed figures, preferring to drop coins into the collection than find the way to take personal spiritual responsibility. Such responsibility once exercised then produces ‘grassroots’ leadership that can transform local neighbourhoods and whole communities.

The success of George Galloway in Bradford illustrates a general electoral malaise. Those presenting themselves as leaders are out of touch and fail to communicate with those they claim to represent. An increasing number of these have failed to vote due to disillusion and loss of faith in the democratic process - this is a worrying trend.

However, if Contemplative Activists will find God on the one hand up the mountain and then return to provide compassionate leadership within their valley communities, then I like to believe the social fabric of this country can be transformed for the better.

 

How about you?