+Spiritual Direction and the Lay Contemplative Life

In a very real sense, laypersons seeking to live the contemplative life in the world are seeking the same spiritual development as monks. They are doing it differently but the end result is the same. Abba Moses said that the immediate end of the monk's life is purity of heart, the ultimate end is the Kingdom of Heaven. All that are gathered here today are basically seeking the same ends, living as authentically Christian day in and day our as possible which is purity of heart. And your ultimate hope is what every monk has, that this will lead to eternal life in God.

This inward journey toward purity of heart, living an authentically Christian life that leads to the fullness of life with God is no simple journey. There are many obstacles along the course, many pitfalls that throw us off, many challenges that will test the sincerity of our undertaking. Every man or woman will be tested to see if he or she is trustworthy of the wonderful gift God has in store for us, of the gift indeed that is offered us daily. It will be seen if we are willing to die to ourselves that Christ may live in us visibly and as intended for each one of us in the circumstances of our lives.

Getting in know ourselves, getting to know the subtle ways the Holy Spirit speaks to us and equally subtle way the world speaks to us through a thousand attachments is critically important for our spiritual growth. Spiritual Direction is a valuable tool toward understanding ourselves, coming to recognize the work of the Spirit inviting us daily to communion with Divine wisdom and goodness. Life itself is often the spiritual director we come most acquainted with as we stumble and receive the knocks that show us our limitations and real condition before God. Even here however, we are often slow to interpret the signs accurately or how these knocks may serve our best advantage. So I'm suggesting that seeking out a spiritual mother, spiritual father may greatly facilitate our journey into God, into that fullness of life Christ wishes to live in us. So often we are too close to really see what is going on, to see what we are doing that stands in the way of progress in the spiritual life.

Recently, I have been looking at a work on St. John of the Cross and Spiritual Direction, having in mind to use a few reflections of his for the Juniors as part of a course on the ascetical life of the monk. Asceticism is all about training oneself to hear the Word of God and responding to it with the whole of one's being. What St. John of the Cross was often very concerned about was how persons can be very sincere about their spiritual development when they undertake the spiritual journey but then become disheartened and then even mediocre because they get bad direction somewhere along the line. Though I cannot quote him verbatim, he is to have said that many would have attained deep communion with God had they received proper guidance at critical moments of their lives. One of John's maxims is this: "If a soul is seeking God, its Beloved is seeking it much more." In another place he says: "If He whom my soul loves is within me, how is it that I find Him not, neither feel Him?" God is eagerly faithful to his/her part of the relationship if we are with ours. John of the Cross is shockingly clear about what our spiritual journey is about, the experience it leads to, the kind of fruition the person will have if he or she is ready to enter the real climb, to practice self-abnegation.

John of the Cross has a wonderful way of presenting the goal set before us as Christians. For anyone seriously seeking contemplation, a vital and transformative relationship with God is where we are heading. Anything short of this cheapens the undertaking. As one author puts it: "John knew how to approach souls so as to make them yield themselves wholly to his beneficent influence; he surrounded them and stimulated them with a multitude of incitements whereby the continually urged them forward on the road to perfection; and at the same time he instilled into them the spiritual earnestness and clear ideal that made them aim at the peaks, longingly and yet safely." Another of John's maxims is this: "Feed not your spirit on anything beside God. Cast away concern for all things, and have peace and recollection in your heart." He has a marvelous way of making one aware that a living and energizing relationship with God is possible and how it takes place. It may lead to a deep night of both the senses and the spirit, into an aridity that is fearsome and seemingly impossible to bear but it is out of a sense of commitment to the very intensity of the relationship. So near and demanding is God's love that it asks everything of us, a total detachment form things and creatures. This kind of emptiness scares us but if we realize that in this emptiness we are filled with the presence of God and are transformed, we realize that this is exactly what we were looking for in the first place. Jesus' comment about the children calling out in the marketplace is often all to pertinent to our own attitudes toward the spiritual life.

A Carmelite by the name of Kevin Culligan compares what the psychologist Carl Rogers saw as the necessary conditions in a therapeutic relationship if a person is expected to grow and change with what John of the Cross saw as the necessary qualities in a good spiritual director. Rogers maintained that the three qualities of genuineness, caring and understanding were necessary if positive change is to occur in a client. By Genuineness he means that the therapists are to be themselves as fully as possible in the therapeutic relationship. The therapist is to be continually aware of what is happening within his or her own self, especially attitudes and feelings that arise in the course of the relationship with the client. By Caring he means a "unconditional positive regard", an experience within the therapist of unqualified acceptance of the client as a person. This is a matter of valuing the client in all their uniqueness, with all their strengths and weaknesses. By Understanding is meant that the therapist experiences the client's inner world of meaning as if it were the therapist's own, but without losing the "as if" character of the experience. It is the therapist's ability to see life as the client sees it, from his or her own internal frame of reference, to understand accurately and sensitively the experiences and feelings of the client and the meanings he or she attaches to them. Culligan then shows, mainly form letters of Spiritual Direction, how John of the Cross manifested and utilized these very qualities in dealing with a wide variety of persons who came to him for direction. John of the Cross had enormous tact with persons he was guiding, identifying deeply with their experience but always calling them beyond themselves into the Christ life within them.

John saw clearly what St. Bernard realized before him, that we would not seek God at all were God not already seeking each one of us. He spoke to others out of his own experience of God's dep and abiding love for us. In one place he says:

"Come then, thou soul, most beautiful of all creatures that so greatly desires to know the place where your Beloved is, in order to seek Him and be united with Him; now you are told that you yourself are the lodging wherein He dwells, and the closet and hiding-place wherein He is hidden. Thus, it is a matter of great contentment and joy for you to see that all our good and your hope are so near you as to be within you or, to speak more exactly, so near that you can not e without them...What more do you desire, O soul, and what more do you see outside yourself, since within yourself you have your riches, your delights, your satisfaction, your fullness and your kingdom, which is your Beloved, whom your soul desires and seeks? Rejoice and be glad in your inward recollection with Him, since you have him so near."

These words no doubt come from his reflection on where Jesus tells us the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He shows a great sense of our dignity and calling by reason of our baptism into Christ. A whole new life is at work in us and it is for us to surrender fully to it. John is a very perceptive psychologist before his time. He understood the feelings, the acridities, the deep emotional shifts that take place when a person is being purified of the ego, all those selfish attachments we learn to take on from our earliest years. To be free of them is God's great work in us for as we let his transformation take place Christ's life becomes more and more manifest in us. Spiritual direction is the highest form of education in the truest meaning of that word which means to lead forth, from the Latin e-ducere, to lead forth into full light and freedom. John saw clearly that the spiritual journey puts us in touch with our deepest reality, the Christ life in us. It is a very demanding journey as any real education is.

Let me quote John of the Cross just once more to bring out what this education involves, the kind of transformation he has in mind for anyone truly seeking the contemplative life whether in a monastery or in the world. "In this perfection of union with God," he says, "all the desires of the soul and its faculties according to its inclinations and operations...are changed into divine operations...The understanding, which before this union understood in a natural way...is now moved and informed by another principle, that of the supernatural light of God...and it has thus been changed into the divine...And the will, which afore time loved after a low manner, and with its natural affection, has now been changed into the life of divine love; for it lives after a lofty manner with divine affection, and is moved by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, in whom it now lives the life of love, since through this union its will and His will are now one." To reach such a state, however, means acceptance of a great deal of suffering and purification. Often this means living in a great deal of darkness and faith. None of us ever escapes this but how much better it is when we recognize and co-operate with what God is doing with us. This is why I suggest Spiritual Direction as a valuable mans of helping us with our journeys.

Let me offer a few concluding remarks. You may be aware that spiritual direction is often seen as spiritual companioning. I like this idea since it indicates that the one who assists us need not be a professional director. Various people can be directors in our lives when we are keyed into how God comes to us in the many circumstances of our lives. It is fine when we have someone with all the qualities listed above, someone who is genuine, caring and understanding but more important still is to share our interior lives with someone who can at least listen and not make hasty judgments. Often enough if we can verbalize what is happening to us to another person, we see for ourselves what needs to be done in order to be faithful to the work of God in us. We share a lot of thoughts with others in our families, how much more ought we to share what is spiritually important for our growth and happiness.

There is a lot being done today in the line of group direction. In a gathering of friends one brings up an aspect of one's spiritual struggle and lets other offer their own insight and experience. Not only is the one seeking help encouraged but the whole group can grow in wisdom and grace before God.


Michael Casagram, OCSO
CLC Summer Picnic
July 9, 2000

Return to Resources