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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

expectations of God and their understanding of justice: seen in a new light, and then discarded for being an
how they believe the world works. For those recovering unhelpful accruement or unnecessary accessory which
from a painful experience of conflict in or abuse by their will weigh the person down on their journey. One
religious community, this conversation can cast light on pilgrim described her place of recovery as like being in
how occasionally, the people and institutions they trusted the ruins of a building following an earthquake where
can act in quite bizarre ways, contrary to the very prin- she was picking her way through the debris to see what
ciples they espouse. Faced with spiritual directees whose was worth keeping and what needed to be discarded.
experience of God has been displaced by the traumatic Eventually some come to the place where they are ready
experience, the role of the spiritual director might be to let go of life itself, trusting in God for what lies next.
to help them consider what God is doing in them dur- Toward the end of this process, the place of recovery is
ing what they may be experiencing as a time of “winter” now a welcomed place; the value of the work the trauma
when their lives feel fallow. Thus, trauma can be viewed has caused the spiritual directee to undertake is now
as one of the many paths which God may be using to understood and embraced. The freedom from the things
empty us before the deep interior work takes place to lead of the past is embraced as a new liberation that issues in
to a deeper sense of union with God. The fruits of this a new, but quietly confident person to be simply who
“emptying out” due to trauma are seen in the desire to she is. Illusions which might have been held by a person
be simply with God, engaged in the contemplative gaze. are often shattered by the traumatic event, but now, in
Spiritual directors who bring to the conversation a this place of recovery, the spiritual director can act as the
deep and long-term view of life’s experiences, many of guide pointing her to a new and deeper appreciation of
which are not necessarily pleasant, bring a hard-won who she is and what she is becoming. To use the title of
wisdom that has come from working diligently to make a book, she has come home to her true self (Haase).
sense of what has occurred. Such spiritual directors
embody a conviction that gives stability and hope (to Conclusion
both themselves and their spiritual directees), that they In this article, I have sought to highlight some of the
have held onto their deepest calling, which is to pursue implicit paradigms that both the spiritual director and
God. We bear the scars from our traumas and resulting spiritual directee may hold and the limitation of such
periods “in recovery,” which have become a gift for us paradigms. I have sought to highlight the limitation and
and now to others—a gift of tenderness and compas- undue influence of the medical or therapeutic model
sion which enables us to hold their hands which bear which influences much of modern Western society. The
so much pain, in ours. Located against the backdrop values that flow from holding to a mechanistic paradigm
of individuals’ journeys across a lifetime, trauma can are often subtle and unhelpful for both the spiritual
be viewed as God’s way of loosening their grip on the director and person seeking guidance, especially when
things they consider important—but things that are either person hopes to be able to move swiftly from
likely to be a hindrance to their further journey with one stage to another, only to discover that he or she has
God. To use the Trappist monk Thomas Merton’s entered into a far more complex and less tidy experi-
expression, the “false self,” which has been carefully ence, which I have termed “in recovery.” A paradigm,
constructed and preoccupied with its addictions and even if it is appropriated from a classical Christian tradi-
fantasies, is often dismantled by trauma and may be tion such as Saint John of the Cross or the well-worn
re-formed in this place I have termed “in recovery” image of “spiritual journey,” can be used in a mechanical
(Merton, 19–20; 25–26; 53; 108–09; and Lucien, 81). way that assumes too much. The challenge for people
For the person in the later stage of “recovery,” the jour- listening to the heartfelt struggle of their pilgrim is to
ney of life can be recast and seen as a series of events leave behind their comfortable and predictable ways of
of “letting go” of anger, resentment, pride, control, or listening based on their cherished paradigms and give
ambitions that cause injury (Lucien, 76). The place themselves more fully to the mystery of God in the
of recovery can be where these things are examined, spiritual direction moment.

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