Depth Spiritual Direction: Listening for God Beneath the Story
Depth listening listens for something subtler: what is emerging beneath the surface, what is asking to be known, what is stirring before it has words.
Depth as a Place of Listening
Spiritual direction has always been concerned with attentiveness — to God, to the movements of the heart, to the unfolding of a person’s life, and to the presence of the Divine or Holy within these. Yet not all listening is the same.
Listening to the Heart: Spiritual Direction as Contemplative Presence
How often does it occur in conversation that, when opinions differ or clash, we fail to truly listen? While the other is opening their heart, sharing intimate and often sacred thoughts, we gather just enough of what they say to prepare our response — or our rebuttal — the moment they pause, if we even wait that long. We may call this dialogue, but in truth one person speaks while the other does not listen. After the exchange, roles reverse, and both have spoken — yet neither
Justice in the Eyes of Compassion: Seeing the Other Without Possession
Ancient stone carving with ornate cross design, covered in orange lichen. Set against a textured stone wall. Mysterious, ancient vibe suggesting the mystery of the compassion of Christ.
The Spiritual Director as Anam Cara
The Celtic tradition offers us the wonderful notion of anam cara . In Gaelic the word anam means soul and cara is a word for friend. So anam cara means soul friend . This is not a simple or superficial friendship, but a special and deep one in which one person really supports and guides another. They are the person to whom you can reveal the hidden intimacies of your life - your innermost self, heart and mind, without mask or pretension. In early Celtic history, the anam c
Praying with the Imagination: Entering the Sacred Story
Imaginative prayer offers a way of meeting God that engages the whole person — mind, body, senses, emotions, and memory. Rather than standing at a distance from scripture, it invites us to step inside the sacred story and discover how God may be present to us there. For many people, this form of prayer opens a deeper, more personal relationship with God, precisely because it welcomes the inner life rather than setting it aside. Imagination and the Christian Tradition Imagina
Praying with Art: Image, Symbol, and the Inner Life
Many people discover that words alone are not always enough in prayer. There are seasons when images, colour, movement, and symbol speak more truthfully to what is stirring within us. Praying with art offers a way of listening and responding that engages the whole person — body, imagination, and soul — and can open us to God in unexpectedly gentle and revealing ways. Art as a Way of Prayer Art can be a wonderful way of communicating with God beyond words — both listening and
Lectio Divina: Listening With the Ear of the Heart
In a culture shaped by speed, information, and analysis, many people long for a way of encountering scripture that is slower, more intimate, and more prayerful. Lectio Divina offers such a way — inviting us not to master the text, but to listen for how God may be addressing us through it, here and now. What Is Lectio Divina? Lectio Divina is an ancient contemplative way to read short passages of sacred text and prayerfully let God speak through them into our lives. Its origin
Spiritual Life and Listening: Learning to Hear With the Heart
Listening to the Holy, listening to others, and listening to ourselves are all vital to the spiritual life. Yet true listening requires courage and vulnerability, for deep listening does not leave us unchanged. To listen attentively is to allow ourselves to be moved, disturbed, and sometimes transformed by what we hear. Silence and the Art of Listening Br David Steindl-Rast — the Benedictine monk and writer — reminds us that 'Without silence there can be no listening.' As I
Describing Spiritual Direction : Voices from a Living Tradition
A sacred conversation held within the life of God. Spiritual direction is often described today in careful, well-established ways — as a contemplative, supportive accompaniment that helps a person attend to God’s presence in their life. These descriptions are not wrong. Yet they are not the whole story. Across Christian history, spiritual direction has been understood, practised, and named in many different ways, shaped by context, temperament, theology, and human need. Rath
