Jesus provided spiritual guidance to his disciples through the words He spoke to them and through His example. When he was about to depart He told them that He would send then another Counselor who would continue guiding them..
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ” (John 14:26)
Jesus appointed His Apostles as pastors to pass on this guidance to those who believe through their testimony. He, in fact, charged Peter to: “Feed My Sheep”, implying not only preaching and teaching, but guidance as well.
All of us who believe are in need of spiritual guidance and we usually receive such guidance from the Word of God and the Ministers of God’s Word whom He has ordained to lead us. However, we must remember that the teachings we need to guide us are available to us , in our spirits, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us . Listen to what John says to the faithful to whom he addresses his first letter:
“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him. ” (1 John 2:27)
The problem is that this anointing needs to be activated and brought to our consciousness and this is the role that the Word of God and the Minister’s of the Word play in bringing the Spirit’s guidance into our hearts. They, through anointed preaching and teaching, are empowered to bring us to conscious awareness of what the Holy Spirit has already placed in us through our conversion and baptism. See what the apostle peter says to the faithful in his second letter :
“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.
I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.” (1Peter 1:10-15)
Now, though most of us have been firmly established in the truth through the Church, we have situations occur in our lives which present us with ethical and moral conundrums that go beyond our basic foundations in the Faith. At such traumatic intervals in our lives a specially endowed person is usually needed to listen to our testimony and guide us through the situation by prayer and an insightful application of the Word of God to our lives. Such individuals are usually termed, “Spiritual Directors”. Although to be truthful, their role is not so much to “direct” you but, rather to discern how the Holy Spirit within you wishes to guide you in the particular situation you are encountering. Your pastor, if so endowed and willing, could be one such person.
St. Francis De Sales, was just such a clergy man in France about four hundred years ago. St. Jane de Chandal, one of his proteges was another. The sub-pages that follow will give you some idea as to the “Salesian” approach to Spiritual Direction in discerning God’s will in our lives.
This page has the following sub pages.
