Page 1 - 2019 July Listen - 13.3 final

A SEEKER’S
RESOURCE
FOR Listen
SPIRITUAL
DIRECTION

JULY 2019 VOLUME 13 ISSUE 3

SPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP FOR OUR TIMES

We begin SDI’s staff meeting each week with mo- spiritual companions in the SDI context we are re-
ments of meditation and reflection. This week, we ferring to individuals who have dedicated significant
shared instances where we had acted as spiritual effort, education, and training to the endeavour. The
companions to someone, or they had acted as spiritual skills we have acquired are the result of long labours,
companions to us. deep and ongoing contemplation, lifelong learning,
deep listening, and abiding ethical groundings. We
Not everyone on the staff are trained spiritual com- hold ourselves accountable to those who meet with
panions, but a range of answers was offered, from us, to the communities we serve and are a part of, and
counseling a friend with suicidal impulses, to theo- to the supervisors who help guide us through various
logical conversations that suddenly went quite deep, challenges, both professional and personal.
to helping someone combat loneliness and identify a
deeper purpose and meaning in their lives. So we are not casual “friends” engaging in idle meta-
physical banter, and spiritual companionship is not a
This led to a reflection that these were all expressions hobby, but rather a serious, committed undertaking.
of spiritual companionship: listening intently, com- It has depth and supportive purpose.
passionately, and tackling issues of deeper meaning
and connection. And yet, spiritual companions at SDI come in many
guises. We have those we describe as “spiritual
In some sense, therefore, we are all spiritual compan- directors,” terminology that originated as a designa-
ions from time to time, to our friends, our family, and tion initially reserved for male clergy in the Catholic
quite often, to total strangers. Our desire to connect tradition, but who for quite some time now have
with the beyond, the infinite, God, or however we encompassed large numbers of lay practitioners,
might refer to the ground of all being, is built into us, predominantly female, in the larger Christian context.
and echoes deeply between us all, like a tuning fork And the key founder of SDI, Sr Mary Ann Scofield,
resonating to a universal note. was vowed religious herself, and we are proud to
have many nuns in our ranks. Within the Abrahamic
With that in mind, nonetheless, when we speak of tree, we also have a significant constituency of Jewish
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