The Meaning of Spiritual Life and Spiritual Direction
What is
“Spiritual Life”?
Spiritual
life is nothing other than “life in Christ.” In the words of a contemporary
Orthodox lay theologian, spirituality consists of “the ways which … lead to
sanctity, to sainthood.” A Spiritual life, then, is about salvation, and
salvation is about understanding, growth and struggle, among other things. It
is hard work, for no one is “born” a saint. By contrast, the average Orthodox
layman today seems to think that he is leading an exceptional spiritual life
merely because he attends church regularly, receives Holy Communion (sometimes
without any proper preparation), and contributes to the support of the Church.
This, however, only shows that he is a member of the Church, not that he is
leading an active spiritual life.
“By
definition, an Orthodox Christian is one who strives to be obedient to the
Commandments and, at the same time, obediently tries to fulfill the
requirements of an Orthodox way of life, as revealed by Scripture and
Tradition. Thus, [regular] attendance at Divine services, frequent reception of
the Mysteries, observance of the seasonal fasts, the giving of alms, etc. — all
of these, and more, constitute the bare minimum expected of those who follow
Jesus Christ. This … is, however, only the beginning for anyone who wishes to
call himself Christian; these are the ‘first steps’ in spiritual life …. Yet …
they represent the patient, hard work of actually beginning to ‘walk’ the
narrow path to the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Active
spiritual life, then, is much more than “minimalism.” It is, in fact, nothing
less than a sincere attempt to fulfill the Lord’s command, Be ye perfect, even
as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect(Matt. 5:48), so that at death we
might be presented to God, holy and unblamable and unreproachable in His sight
(Col. 1:22). The Church, in all of her grace-filled manifestations (the
Sacraments, the Divine services, and even parish life itself), is the proper
school for spiritual life, for the Church possesses abundant wisdom and
experience, and this is the primary purpose — to lead us to sainthood by
showing us how to unite our will to God.
What is Spiritual Direction?
Since the
essence of spiritual life consists “in healing our impaired will, uniting it
with the will of God and sanctifying it by this union,” and since “in order to
do the will of God it is necessary to know it,” spiritual direction is a
careful process by which we first learn and then apply the principles of
spiritual life, thus coming to know God’s will for us with assurance. Some very
few saints and righteous ones, finding themselves in circumstances where
healthy and genuine spiritual direction was not available, were able to do this
for themselves through a very patient, prayerful, and life-long study of sacred
texts. Such, for example, was the great Saint Paisius Velichkovsky, the
eighteenth-century Russian monastic reformer and teacher. Most of us, however,
must imitate the Ethiopian in the Book of Acts -How can I understand unless
someone guides me?
Spiritual
direction consists not only of learning ancient techniques of prayer, but it
requires detailed instruction by the director, as well as guided reading and
study and learning inner attention. But it also has an important dimension of asceticism
— that is, certain kinds of bodily practices that, in Orthodox spirituality, go
hand in hand with prayer and learning. Such practices may include learning how
to live a quieter lifestyle, adopting (with the permission of one’s director)
additional fasting and abstinence exercises, and more frequent attendance at
Divine services — all of which are calculated to slightly challenge and tax the
body and its natural energies, putting it under additional discipline and
control.
In most
cases, a spiritual director will take his spiritual child “from strength to
strength,” beginning with the simplest and easiest “ABC’s” of spiritual
striving. He will first inquire to know at what level the student is in his
spiritual life — and it does not matter how basic or even primitive the student
may be — and the director will also want to know in some detail about his state
in life — married or single, with children or without, what kind of job, and
what the student does for entertainment. Slowly but surely the director will
introduce the student to certain hallowed principles and ideas. He will assign
reading and will carefully discuss that reading with the student.
The
director will expose his spiritual child to various methods of prayer which are
time-honored in the Church (for spiritual life is in many ways as much a
science as an art). He will also assign a Prayer Rule, very simple at first,
and then gradually more complex, and he will carefully supervise the student’s
progress in prayer. He will also act as confessor to his spiritual son or
daughter, for in this great Mystery of Repentance the director is most able to
act as a spiritual physician. In this context, a spiritual father strives
particularly to show his spiritual children the way to repentance, which means
“a change of mind that is accompanied by deep regret over one’s past life or
over some particular act which one has committed,” so that “there is a profound
change of orientation, a sudden shift of the center of gravity of one’s total
being from the material to the spiritual, from the physical world to God, from
concern for the body to concern for the soul.”
Not
least, a spiritual father will be available as a sympathetic ear and a healthy
and objective “sounding-board” when his spiritual sons and daughters are in
need of this.
By
Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young)
Excerpt from: http://www.pravmir.com/how-can-i-understand-unless-someone-guides-me-on-the-place-and-importance-of-spiritual-direction/
