Articles on Spiritual Direction
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The Healing Path
The next time I went to see Thomas Merton for spiritual direction, I asked his permission to spend some time each day alone in the loft of the sheep barn. With Merton’s permission, I began my daily ritual of going to the loft of the sheep barn to pray and be alone with God. One…
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She Weeps: Leaning into the Spiritual Guidance Program
John 11:32b-35: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.“Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. I am a new associate of the…
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Climate Change of the Heart
What’s the climate of our time? Judging from what I hear from the news, the world is coming to an end. From what I hear from YouTube celebrities, it won’t if I do “these five things (and number four will surprise me!).” From what I hear from my heart, I don’t even know where to…
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Judge Me with Love: A Spiritual Practice Inspired by Julia Child
Listen. Let me tell you something. I guarantee there is something beautiful and delicious about your life and it’s part of what makes this world good. Julia Child had butter and the desire to cook with it. Roses in that same buttery yellow are named for her. Those roses now grow in the dirt beside…
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Learning to Love the Questions
It took me over a decade to discern that I wanted to be a priest. I was introduced to the Episcopal Church halfway through my studies in seminary, and I knew right away that I had found a spiritual home after a long sojourn of not being rooted in a religious tradition. As I regularly…
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Nurturing Spiritual Directors as Contemplative Leaders
On November 11, 2022, the Shalem Board approved Vision 2025: Our Ongoing Hope. The Vision offers six guiding principles for attending wholly to one’s spiritual practice while traveling through what might seem like the barren wilderness of ordinary life. As Director of Shalem’s Nurturing the Call: Spiritual Guidance Program, I find that the fifth guiding…