Group Spiritual Direction – Part 1

We enter the 21st century with too many people who have read Susan Howatch’s novels of English clerical life and too few spiritual directors able to help them realize their dreams of “helpful companionship along the way.” My own load of directees is way too large – I have always reasoned that God must be sending me some of these people, and so I should accept them all as potential directees, or at the very least have a preliminary interview. But I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't adopt a more mundane and considerably less passive approach to the issue of triage. The jury is still out on that one.

In the meantime – thanks to The Healthcare Chaplaincy's encouragement and administration – I’ve gathered two sets of people for monthly group spiritual direction. Each group is limited to 12 people. So far, each group has met twice. Their members had only to sign up in order to attend, a low threshold if ever there was one. There will be a sifting down in numbers, I predict, as the six-month trial period continues, so that each group will probably end up with nine or ten people instead of twelve. People in group spiritual direction seem to vary as widely in maturity and capacity to be accountable as private directees. That's fine with me.

Here's what we do: We meet once a month for two hours. We go around the circle and briefly say who we are and where we are. Then we spend the first 50 minutes or so discussing some specific aspect of spiritual discipline: a rule of life, journaling, the rhythm of prayer, the use of confession – the usual things. I start off that discussion with 20 or so didactic minutes of overview about what's available: what people do, what resources are available, what directees of mine have tried, what I do. Then the group members talk about their own practices with regard to the discipline under discussion, and ask questions. I remind them – frequently – that the more they participate in the first part, the more they will get out of the second part. Everyone participates, eventually.

In the next issue, Ms. Crafton discusses other aspects of group process, and how they contribute to individual spiritual direction and the spiritual direction of the group as a whole