What is spiritual direction?

Last week I participated in a meeting of nearly 40 spiritual directors in Indianapolis to assist in rolling out a set of guidelines from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for people interested both in being a spiritual director and wishing to benefit from spiritual direction. I had the sense it wasn't the best received meeting though it certainly wasn't the worst. The directors (almost all of them women) seemed to fear some kind of control blanketing them in their work. Certainly affirmations were passed out. Spiritual directors provide a service the Church cannot do without and it was important to acknowledge that. But that seemed to be part of the problem. The women seemed a bit wary of being recognized by the Church.

No matter that every diocese contiguous to the archdiocese of Indianapolis has guidelines for spiritual direction. Such guidelines support the work of direction and directors by giving Catholics some basic information as to just what spiritual direction is, how it works, what it is not, how to find a director, what to look for in a director, etc. Spiritual directors sometimes have an independent, cowboy attitude that defies attempts to recognize commonality. Some spiritual direction is not direction at all. It is not problem solving and it is always about one's relationship with God. Anything else you might want to classify as life coaching.

Earlier that day, in his homily, Pope Francis quoted Pope Paul VI and noted "it's absurd to claim that we love Christ without the Church, that we listen to Christ but not the Church, that we are with Christ but on the margins of the Church." Some spiritual directors I know consider themselves on the margins of the Church. I have to wonder, however, how narrowly they define the Church.

There are constant rebukes on the part of one Catholic or another over how conservative certain members of this or that parish, or organization, or diocese are, or how liberal this or that Catholic is. I hear that said about certain spiritual directors. My level of desolation increases hearing this for I hear old categories being used to explain ministry and to suggest that some ministry is acceptable while others are not depending on what one's definition of Church is. Whether they want to or not, whether they like it or not, these spiritual directors represent the Church and how they function as directors is both important in the life of the Church and defining just what that Church is.

Pope Francis spoke of three pillars that underscore our sense of belonging to the Church. These are humility, faithfulness, and prayer. In humility we recognize "that the story of salvation does not start or end with us." I fear this may be a peculiarly American attitude in the Church for as Americans we begin from the proposition that we have the solutions to all the world's problems. Thus, the Holy Father could say "we receive the Gospel as a gift and we must pass that gift on to others in faithfulness, rather than seeing it as something that belongs to us." Lastly, we must pray with and for the Church in all parts of the world.

Which brings me to the Holy Father's Lenten message in which he invites us during this Lenten season to "find the whole Church ready to bear witness to all those who live in material, moral and spiritual destitution the Gospel message of the merciful love of God our Father, who is ready to embrace everyone in Christ." People we receive often live in such destitution and that is why we listen to them - so we may assist them in knowing God's merciful love.

The story of salvation is not just the way I look at life. The story of salvation begins with Jesus and spiritual direction is one method of finding Jesus. One's present life may be in chaos and Jesus may not seem present. It is the director's job to keep asking the question - How is God present? Too much spiritual direction today seems tied up with self-help efforts to individualize oneself to an insufficient independence of pride. Being acknowledged by the Church takes my role as a spiritual director beyond my own prejudices and personal insights into the realm of being a minister of the Gospel through listening for the work of God in the life of the individuals who seek my assistance.

Keeping Christ in Christmas

As a child at Our Lady of Lourdes grade school, I and classmates took part in the annual "put Christ back into Christmas" campaign. Some Catholic organization promoted this campaign which I remember being encouraged to accept as a fourth or fifth grader more than 50 years ago. I believe it was a national campaign. Bumper stickers were distributed for cars to use to promote the campaign.

The campaign seemed a little odd to me. I hadn't heard that Christ had been removed from Christmas and needed being put back. Yes, it was popular to abbreviate the word to 'Xmas' but some pointed out that the 'X' was the same thing as the Greek Chi-Rho letter though I don't know how many people knew that. It is true there was as a child a growing materialistic sense of the Christmas holiday. Public displays of the Nativity had not yet been challenged but that seemed fairly secure. What did seem to be a threat was Santa Claus. Santa represented a secular Christmas and some weren't sure he wasn't displacing Jesus from his place in Christmas.

"Miracle on 34th Street" was a 1946 film that attacked the growing commercialization of the Christmas holiday itself without ever specifically mentioning a religious theme. But it also focused on a sense of faith as "believing in someone or something when common sense tells you not to." The buying and selling that increasingly occurred during this season seemed to be the real culprit and the cause of Jesus' displacement.

The secularity of the holiday does not really frighten me though. It has all become a part of the total mix. Santa Claus has been around quite a long time with roots in a Turkish bishop. And modern day Christmas carols like "Silver Bells" and "Winter Wonderland" and "White Christmas" all have a somewhat inspirational feel to them if not a religious one.

The secular Christmas holiday simply offers another opportunity to evangelize. Too many religious people are too comfortable in misunderstanding the Christmas story. Some seem unable to care if anyone else really believes in the Christ story or not. qJesus is indeed the reason for the season but we can best keep Christ in Christmas by living out of his ideals and not those of the American consumer.

The first five days of Christmas

For people of faith the Christmas season has just begun. Christmas Day was its first day. Some members of my own family have already taken down their Christmas tree.  For some it's already over because the economic engines have left the Christmas stations behind.

A local TV station has warned us about the dangers of burning your own live Christmas tree near your own house. But that's a message I only remember hearing later in this season. I recall a big local event being the burning of Christmas trees in Broad Ripple Park on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, that is, the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. Of course, January 6 isn't always the Feast of the Epiphany anymore since the Church calendar now transfers it to the nearest Sunday for worship.

There are holdouts, of course. Purists continue to observe January 6 as the Twelfth Day of Christmas and celebrate accordingly. The combination of Advent preparation and Christmas celebration has been re-engineered by bureaucrats so that all the major feasts fall on Sundays because it is too much trouble for us to celebrate it on a weekday when the business of America and our societies must be maintained first.

Many Orthodox Christians fast before Christmas Day. They identify the Nativity Fast as the period of preparing to celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth. It is believed that fasting helps people shift their focus from themselves to others, spending less time worrying about food and using more time in increased prayer and caring for the poor. In return, fasting before the Nativity enables one to fully enjoy, appreciate and celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Does that sound like Lent? Why would anyone want to do that twice a year?

For many Orthodox Christians, Christmas Day is not about presents, eggnog or Christmas characters that have become popular through commercialization. Christmas Day is a time to heal the soul. It is also a time of peace and unity.

White cloth is used on dinner tables in some countries to symbolize purity and the cloth that baby Jesus was wrapped in. Straw may be placed on these tables to symbolize the simplicity of the place where Jesus was born.  Candles may be lit to represent the light of Christ and the festive Christmas meal represents the end of fasting.

On December 27 we celebrated the great feast of John the Evangelist. On December 26 we celebrated the great feast of Stephen the first martyr. The first day of Christmas was full of joy over the birth of the child born poor. The second day of Christmas was full of sorrow for the first follower of this child who would be murdered because he accepted the poverty of the child. The third day of Christmas honors the man who stood by the child in his adulthood, the man who loved him so much that he accepted responsibility for his remaining family. December 28 was the fourth day and we remember those who never knew the child, those who suffered and died in anonymity because of the jealousy of those who held power in the secular kingdom in which Jesus was born. This year on the fifth day we celebrate the family of Jesus as an encouragement to each of our own families to identify the diversity of husband, wife, child - man, woman, and young boy or girl - a diversity that joins together to make up the first unit of any society, a building block of hope, faith and charity in a world hell bent on destroying anything that smacks of unity and achievement.

The remaining days of Christmas until January 6 refuse to acknowledge the death of pine needles in our waste centers. There is so much more to glean from the birth of this child than a pretty picture for our photo albums. Jesus is not about egg nog and cheap ornaments. Jesus is about healing the soul. Jesus is about living and dying.

Four versions of the same story

There are four Gospels in the Bible. That is, there are four accounts of the life of Christ and each of them differs from the other because each of them wants to make a different point about Jesus. One place in which that difference is revealed is in the accounts of the birth of Christ.

The Gospel of Mark does not contain the story of the birth. That Gospel begins with the preaching of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. The birth did not interest Mark. Mark was excited by the good news that the kingdom of God broke into human life. Mark's Gospel cries out with one incident in the life of Jesus after another so that we can share that excitement.

The Gospel of John is completely different from those of Mark, Luke, and Matthew. It is more of a reflection on the life of Christ, an example of someone sitting down and answering the question, what do you think Christ was like? So for John, the Word, that is, God’s word, became flesh, became a human being, and made his dwelling among us. This is John's theme. John wants us to consider the larger meaning of Christ's birth. Why did God choose to become human? is one of his questions.

It is only in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that we have the story known as the Infancy Narrative. Beginning with the Annunciation, the angel asking Mary to become the mother of Jesus, and then the Visitation, the visit Mary made to her compassionate cousin Elizabeth, followed by the birth, the visit of the shepherds and the kings, these two Gospels place different emphases on the same story. Luke is particularly interested that Jesus was born poor. He was not a king born in splendor. Matthew, whose Gospel we hear this cycle, is the one who is most interested in the family of Jesus. This is why we hear that long genealogy. Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus comes to us as part of the family of a long line of believers.

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Pope Francis, in a homily this past week, spoke of a third coming of the Lord. Jesus came into history 2,000 years ago. He promises to return for a second coming at the end of time. But the Holy Father spoke of another third coming of the Lord. “The Lord visits His Church every day!,” the Holy Father said, “He visits each of us, and so our souls as well: our soul resembles the Church, our soul resembles Mary. Our soul is waiting for the coming of the Lord.”

He asked, “Are we expectant, or are we indifferent? Are we vigilant, or are we closed up ‘safely’ in an inn along the way, without desire to go forward. Are we are pilgrims, or are we wanderers? For this reason, the Church invites us to pray, ‘Come!’, in order to open our soul and in order that that our soul be, these days, vigilant and expectant. Is there a place for the Lord, or only for parties, for shopping, for revelry? Is our soul open or is our soul rather closed, with a “Do Not Disturb!” sign hung on the door to it?”

At this Christmas feast Pope Francis asks us to repeat this call many times – ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ and look to see our soul be not one of those souls that say, “Do not disturb!” Let ours be great souls – souls open to receive the Lord in these days and that begin to feel that, which on this feast the Church will speak to us in the antiphon: ‘Know that today the Lord will come, and in the morning you will see his glory!’

Man of justice

Joseph was a just man. That’s what I always heard growing up. Joseph was a just man and though Mary was betrothed to him and pregnant, but not through Joseph, he sought justice for his wife-to-be, not vengeance upon her. He could dismiss her, he could divorce her (which he decided to do quietly), but there was no thought for him to destroy her. Joseph was a just man.

Fear of the Lord is often misappropriated in the Old Testament as it is in the first reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent this year. Ahaz is the local ruler and the prophet encourages him to turn to the Lord and ask for what hiS people need. Ahaz views the encouragement as a temptation for the Lord to destroy his people. What kind of god does Ahaz know that would destroy the very beings seeking his help?

Ahaz refuses to seek a sign from God but God gives a sign anyway – the young girl, the virgin, who will be with child by the Holy Spirit. Even so, this sign causes confusion and uncertainty among the people of Israel, for it is beyond the boundaries of what people could understand. It was not culturally acceptable for a young girl to be pregnant and unmarried.

What could be more different from our own age? It is so accepted in our own society that the story of Mary and Joseph is almost meaningless to us. So what, some may ask? Because human relationships today are often looked upon as me getting my need satisfied and you are just an object through which I can obtain satisfaction, Mary and Joseph might as well be from another planet. What is at stake here is the intervention of God. God inserts himself into our history. This pregnancy does not occur in the normal human way. It was not caused by a casual relationship between a man and a woman. Mary has become pregnant because the Lord has intervened. The pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Jesus are events that force us to reflect on the place of God in our human history.

In terms of the whole of human history, the birth of Jesus occurs so that the whole human race can start over. Humanity begins again when Mary says yes to the angel and when Joseph says yes to his dream. He is a just man and would not bring shame upon Mary. God alerts Joseph to God’s work. And all this is in the midst of evil. The world in which Mary and Joseph live is evil. There is great injustice in it. Catherine de Hueck Doherty wrote that because we are free to choose good or evil in our lives, the good news of the Gospel is not fulfilled in us. We say no to the Holy Spirit. But Mary said yes. Her life was full of hope. She agreed to a fullness in her own life that meant giving birth to one who would fulfill the hopes of all humankind.

Ahaz lived in fear. In his dream Joseph is told not to fear. God is with him. God is with Mary. Is there such fear in us that we live without the kind of hope that Mary and Joseph displayed? The point of this story is to show us that it is possible to begin again at each moment of our lives. We are not robots that are determined to function in a certain way. We can begin anew whenever we want. We can choose. We can ask God and we too can say yes.

Silence of Joseph

""The website Catholic Online reported that "Pope Francis has directed those closest to him in the Curia, notably the cardinals and the archbishops, to hear confessions at the church of Santo Spirito just outside the Vatican" this weekend.

Confessions are already heard there on a daily basis. But now these high profile Churchmen will be doing same and Pope Francis expects to join them as well. It is one more sign of the Holy Father's efforts to remind all Catholic priests - be they parish priest or administrative cardinal - of their primary duty as pastors. The motivation for the order, according to Catholic Online, is to emphasize for the people the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the greatness of God in forgiving human sin. 

On this date the Holy Father also gave his "state of the union" address to members of the Roman Curia. He identified two important qualities these members must have - professionalism and service. He encouraged them not to fall into the weakness of gossip which is an all too familiar habit among bureaucrats in any institution. Pope Francis believes members of the Curia must behave like St. Joseph, who, he claims, "is so necessary at the side of Mary." Joseph's silence is a model for these men to emulate.

Pope Francis is clearly getting back to basics - certainly in terms that remind the clergy of their calling as priests. He has already clearly ruled out the fascination with a clerical lifestyle and he has called for bishops to spend less time in airports than in their own dioceses. It is not our vocation to be solely engaged in polemics. It IS our vocation to be with people and listening to their joys and sorrows.

Catholic Online concluded its story by saying "This appears to be the dominant theme of Francis' pontificate. That God is great, powerful, and merciful, and that when we act with humility, we truly serve God and one another."

What did I go out to see?

John the Baptist wondered who this man Jesus was. Jesus responded by asking John's followers what they saw. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised. The poor have the good news proclaimed to them.  What do we see? Where are the blind, the lame, the deaf, the leper, the dead and the poor? Are they not all about us and maybe even within us?

Shoppers defied bad weather to spend money on two successive bad weather weekends. Another high schooler shoots a classmate in a school and then kills himself. Butler beats Purdue in basketball. Peter O'Toole and Joan Fontaine are two well known celebrities who died this past week. Nelson Mandela was laid to rest. Congress is finally getting a little work done. Those are some of the headlines. So just what is Jesus talking about anyway?

He does not seem to understand that gas prices are high and I have less to spend on necessities. He does not seem to grasp that a friend's family life is falling apart. He doesn't emphasize the pain of same sex couples who want to marry or of heterosexual couples who are divorced and want to remarry and receive the Eucharist. Or do none of these represent broken lives?

What did you go out in the desert to see, Jesus asks? John was unlike anything they had known. Jesus is even more so. Perhaps I am too caught up in my own self to notice the blind, the lame, the poor all around me. Perhaps I do not any longer recognize what good news is unless it is the value of the hamburger at the local fast food restaurant on which I can gorge myself. Why should I even care about the deaf and the poor anyway?

It is only of value if the person of Jesus has made a difference in my life. Otherwise I am traveling a road that leads nowhere fast. Still there are some who prefer that road to one that is well lit and safe, one that has an end to it, an end that makes absolute sense and that offers satisfaction.