"Understandest thou what thou readest?" The Role of Spiritual Direction
A very early
example of spiritual direction is found in the Book of Acts. Saint Philip is
traveling across the desert, from Jerusalem to Gaza. He meets an Ethiopian who
is sitting in his chariot and reading the Old Testament Book of Isaiah - a
book that contains many of the messianic prophecies that were fulfilled in
Jesus Christ. Saint Philip is inspired to say to the Ethiopian: Understandest
thou what thou readest? (Acts 8:30). To which the man replies with an important
question of his own: How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired
Philip that he would come up and sit with him... (Acts 8:31).
Spiritual direction has always had a
significant place in Orthodox Christianity. We see references to it over and
over again in the Lives of the saints and in the writings of the Holy Fathers
of the Church. It exists today wherever pious people have made the commitment
to lead truly spiritual lives and to do spiritual work on themselves. Yet it is
rarely talked about, especially in North America, where the cultural
environment does not easily !end itself to the practice of humbly seeking and
following spiritual advice. There is also danger, where some individuals may be
only too anxious and impetuous to receive guidance from those who are either
not truly qualified or who have some base psychological need to control and
have power over others. Spiritual direction, then, like so much of Orthodox
spirituality, is found on the "Royal Path," the road of moderation and
balance.
What, then, is spiritual direction, who
needs it, and (perhaps most important of all) who can be a spiritual director?
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.
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.
Who Can Be a
Spiritual Director?
Just as we are not born saints, so no one
is born a spiritual father. And since you cannot give that which you do not
have, a spiritual father must himself have been (and still be) under spiritual
formation and guidance from another who is wiser and more experienced; he
himself must have struggled in the spiritual life and, by God's grace and his
own prayerful efforts, have climbed at least some distance up the sacred mount
of Golgotha. Parish priests must remain under spiritual direction their whole
lives. They must go directly to their bishop for this, or they may know a holy
monk or righteous priest to whom they confide and under whom they continue to
learn and grow. If a priest's spiritual father dies, he should seek out
another. One must keep in mind the axiom, "He who gives himself spiritual
guidance has a fool for a spiritual father."
Spiritual direction is not about
commanding and obeying, but leading and following. Thus, all Orthodox spiritual
father must not be on some kind of "power trip," nor is he wanting to
be a "guru" with many disciples. He will never ask a spiritual child
to violate his own conscience or the laws of God and the Church in any
slightest degree. No true spiritual father runs behind his flock driving them
with a prod or whip. He unhesitatingly and even vigorously leads, and his
spiritual children follow. It is a bond of mutual love and respect, "a
living bond between two living souls, one more experienced than the other, one
capable of showing the way because he has already begun to travel it, the other
willing to trust and follow .... The spiritual father does not coerce, he does
not give orders; rather, be takes the spiritual child by the hand and leads the
way, gently but firmly.''
Although the parish priest already gives some
general spiritual direction in his sermons, he is also available to give
direction and guidance one-on-one, which is where the most productive spiritual
growth often takes place. Similarly, in all monastic or seminary situations,
one or two experienced directors are appointed to fulfill the role of director
for all of the monks, nuns, or seminary students in each place.
It should be said that spiritual
direction is not necessarily limited to males, although in our day this has
become the common arrangement. There are occasionally very experienced and wise
women -usually but not always nuns - who are able to function as spiritual
mothers. In the old Orthodox countries there were (and still are) true
eldresses (the female equivalent of an elder or staretz); the lives of some of
these righteous women have come down to us and are available in English. But,
because of our immaturity and spiritual bankruptcy in the West today, we should
not be looking for either elders or eldresses. Simply to find a sorer, what
simple but good, kind, and yet strict spiritual father is already a great
accomplishment in this time of overwhelming spiritual fake~.
We must also note that there are special
circumstances under which a parishioner might, with the blessing of his pastor,
seek spiritual direction from a priest (or monastic) other than his own parish
priest. For example, a parishioner who feels strongly called to monastic life
may already have developed a relationship with a spiritual father (or mother)
in the monastery he is considering joining. Very occasionally there may be a
serious personality clash with a pastor, requiring that a penitent seek
guidance elsewhere. But in honest cases of this kind, the spiritually alert
parish priest will himself have no difficulty releasing his parishioner to look
for another spiritual father.
Finally, "Who
Needs It?"
In a word, everyone
needs spiritual direction. Since spiritual growth is not about minimalism but
about sanctification and holiness, and since none of us is born a saint, no
serious Orthodox Christian would seek to excuse himself from some kind of spiritual
direction, however basic or slow-going it might be. All of us are called to
virtue, to union with Christ, and none of us can do it alone. To think
otherwise is to be guilty of what the wisest Church Fathers called
"self-delusion" (in Russian, prelest; in Greek, plani, which is the
most serious of all spiritual diseases,
The Church teaches that there are six
categories of Sints: Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs (bishop or
teacher-saints), Monastic saints, and the Righteous. None of us will ever be
Apostles; few will be Prophets or Hierarchs; a few will be monastics, but most
of us are summoned to the rank of Righteous saints - priests and lay people -
who are called to achieve sanctity while living in the world.
But, once again, this cannot be done alone,
in isolation, without guidance and direction from a spiritual father, whose
importance must not be underestimated. (But, in these difficult days, neither
should his importance be overestimated or exaggerated by ascribing to him some
kind of fake "eldership" wherein we give our free will over
completely into the hands of a man or woman who may be as passionate as we are,
and therefore very likely to cause us great spiritual harm.) Receiving healthy
spiritual instruction is part of the armory of spiritual warfare, and it is the
spiritual father who can help us to "pay enough regard to the state of
[our] soul, whether it is in good health, whether its life is vigorous ... [and
whether] its eternal life, its eternal happiness, is ensured...''
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