Spiritual direction and companionship inspires people to experience authenticity in their lives as they connect with and explore the ground of all being, that deepest of truths which is beyond life and death and goes by many names, including God, and no name at all.
The spiritual companions of SDI share their stories on our blog. Receive nourishment, learn a new practice, and gain insight into the healing modality of spiritual companionship through one of the stories shared below.
If you are an SDI Member interested in writing an SDI Story for the blog, please use our submission form here: Submit an SDI Story.
By Sarah Lyon There’s a flutter of feathered activity at a point along the dirt path that rises above the shoreline close to Kits Beach in Vancouver. Two, sometimes three hummingbirds dart between a sap-laden pine and other bushes set back from this well-trodden path. It becomes part of my daily
By Beth G. Raps, PhD And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. “Late Fragment” by Raymond Carver In A New Path to the Waterfall, Atlantic Monthly Press,
Editor’s note – This heartfelt account comes from the Christian Catholic tradition. But the story of hearing the call to spiritual direction after being the beneficiary of deep listening is one that many spiritual directors and companions will appreciate. By Margaret Meisen When preparing for marriage, my husband-to-be and I
By Joan Alexander A peer can mean someone who is the same age or same social status as you, like a colleague or an associate. But to peer can also mean to look closely, with curiosity. Both of these definitions apply to Peer Supervision in Spiritual Direction. In this article
By Dr. Janice Lundy, DMin, MPC Many years ago when I was training to be a spiritual director, the kindly Sister who led the program made it very clear to us that spiritual guidance over the telephone was not acceptable. More specifically, that good spiritual guidance could not happen unless
By Dr. Jeanette Banashak Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps the singing bird will come. I must share with you a story about a particularly barren time in my life when I used a tree for a spiritual director. I learned so much that year because I
By Angela Marie Gage This is the story of the moment – or moments – I felt the call to spiritual companioning and how heeding that call has changed my life. In my early 50’s, I was invited to attend a personal and silent retreat at a men’s monastery. I
By Joan Alexander It is early morning and the hotel room is dark. I pause for a moment at the window. The curtains are closed and the only sound I hear is the air conditioner as it blows cool air on me. Slightly disoriented – yesterday had been a long
In our schools and in our homes, let’s teach our children how to listen and converse with new people to make them feel welcome. Let’s teach our kids how to ask others for their stories and how to receive them warmly and nonjudgmentally. Let’s start a paradigm where all new
Editor’s note: We are grateful to Eric Zimmer and his podcast – “The One You Feed” for giving us permission to share a transcript from a part of his session with Rev. SeiFu Anil Singh-Molares, executive director of SDI. Eric is himself a trained spiritual director as well as a
Editor’s note – Sister Marguerite Buchanan played an essential role in the development of the pioneering Mercy Center spiritual direction program at Burlingame, California in the 1980s, working alongside SDI founders Sister Mary Ann Scofield, RSM and Jack Mostyn, among others. Sr Marguerite once said, “There is life going on
Editor’s note: Spiritual director and noted author Carl McColman generously offered to share his teaching here for our whole community to enjoy. Please note this post is not only meaningful for spiritual directors and spiritual companions, nor just for Christians, but for anyone with a curiosity about contemplative spirituality. Carl
Subscribe to SDI updates to receive a FREE eBook filled with contemplative wisdom!
As a free gift for signing up for SDI’s updates, we are offering you a 59-page eBook filled with contemplative wisdom!
Please use it as you wish:
