Articles on Spiritual Direction

  • Nurturing Spiritual Directors as Contemplative Leaders

    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…

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  • Meandering

    Meandering

    My spiritual journey has meandered over the years. I grew up the youngest of seven children in a loving, traditional Roman Catholic family. My early faith formation taught me valuable lessons about the importance of spiritual community, prayer, meaningful rituals, and family. I’m grateful for those lessons. As a young adult, I wandered away from…

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  • Thrown Open Like a Window

    Thrown Open Like a Window

    All my life, I felt like I didn’t fit in. Raised Catholic and then married to a Methodist, I always felt like a square peg forced into a round hole regarding religion. I believed in a Higher Power yet recognized my belief didn’t fit within the established church and would jokingly refer to myself as…

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  • Spiritual Companionship at the Time of Death

    Spiritual Companionship at the Time of Death

    The ministry of spiritual companionship can be so rewarding and evokes a sense of the reciprocity inherent in giving. Graduating from Shalem’s Nurturing the Call: Spiritual Guidance Program gave me the needed credentials to serve as a hospice chaplain with Louisiana Hospice & Palliative Care in Opelousas, LA. (Chaplain credentialing requirements vary among agencies.) I…

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  • Beyond the List of “Shoulds”: Receiving God’s Invitation

    Beyond the List of “Shoulds”: Receiving God’s Invitation

    “Many times today I will cross over a threshold. I hope I will catch a few of those times. I need to remember that my life is, in fact, a continuous series of thresholds: from one moment to the next, from one thought to the next, from one action to the next. Help me appreciate…

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  • Answering the Call

    Answering the Call

    How did I get here? How did a singer and voice specialist end up as a spiritual director – much less the director of Shalem’s Spiritual Guidance Program? I’ve asked these questions a lot over the past year while stepping into my new role within SGP. I share the following reflections upon my own spiritual…

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Mission

Our mission is to nurture contemplative living and leadership.

Vision

In 2025, Shalem will be a dynamic and inclusive community, empowered by the Spirit, where seekers engage in transformation of themselves, their communities, and the world through spiritual growth, deep connection, and courageous action.

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