School of Spiritual Direction
Our School of Spiritual Direction is scheduled to begin again in September 2009 and extend into April 2010. (Our Fall/Winter/Spring Modules). If you’ve been looking for training in this ancient charism of the church, we’d love to have you join us. What we learn and the bonds we form are rich. If you choose to join us, we think you’ll find this to be one of the best experiences of your year.
[Tentative dates for the 2010 Spring/Summer Modules are also listed. These will be finalized in September 2009].
2009-10 DATES (Fall/Winter/Spring Modules)
• Sep 24-26 (Thurs - Sat)
• Nov 13-14 (Fri - Sat)
• Jan 8-9 (Fri - Sat)
• Feb 28-27 (Fri - Sat)
• Apr 15-17 (Thur - Sat)
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TENTATIVE 2010 DATES (Spring/Summer Modules)
• Jan 14-16 (Thurs - Sat)
• Mar 5-6 (Fri - Sat)
• Apr 23-24 (Fri - Sat)
• June 11-12 (Fri - Sat)
• July 22-24 (Thur - Sat)
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COST
The training cost is $1,250. To reserve your spot, you’ll need to submit a $250 deposit no later than Friday, August 28. If the balance is paid in full by the first day of the first Intensive, we can offer you a $100 discount. Otherwise, the balance can be stretched out over 4 months, with payments of $250 falling due on 1st day of October, November, December and January.
These fees, of course, don’t cover whatever costs you’ll incur for books, transportation, lodging and food. In order to help you we’re offering rooms in our home (a former convent) with breakfast included for a very modest fee of $25 per night as long as they’re available. (Book early if you want to assure yourself a room!) We also have a rich network of people who live right around us and are part of our community of faith. Many of them have guest rooms. Once our own rooms fill up we’ll do what we can to find you accommodations within a block or two and for the same price.
You can reserve your spot by going to our secure online server to pay your deposit. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll first need to fill out an application (see directly below) and schedule a phone conversation (or face-to-face) with Dave Nixon.
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REGISTRATION
click here to start the registration process
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OUR ORIENTATION
Our training in spiritual direction flows from a decidedly trinitarian and christocentric basis. That is, we believe in the triune God, confessing God as the creator of all, confessing Jesus as God revealed in the flesh, and confessing the Holy Spirit as the gift of God who empowers us through the resurrection of Christ to enter into God’s redemptive work. We are Christ-followers, attempting to embody the very life and message of Jesus so as to represent him to the world.
Having said that, it’s necessary to add that we don’t see or use or promote spiritual direction as a “tool” for Christian evangelism. We believe that spiritual direction is to be offered in a “disinterested” manner and without conditions. As Jesus points out, God’s sun and rain fall on all people –– the good and the bad, the just and the unjust –– simply because it’s a comprehensive (perfect) love.
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THE COMPONENTS OF OUR TRAINING
1 Reading
[For a complete reading list, please email Dave: info@sustainablefaith.com]
I want to be careful here not to overstate the importance of the readings for your training in the work of spiritual direction. In our present culture we have a particularly nasty habit of confusing information with wisdom — and the intellectual acquisition of a spiritual good with the embodied practice that should reflect it. In short, we tend toward gnosticism. But spiritual direction has to do with one person attending well to the spiritual well-being of another as it relates to the God-conversation, and this is something you can do (and do well!) without ever reading a book. As long as we keep this firmly in mind, then we can approach our reading in the way I’d like to present it: as a point of departure for reflecting on our own lives and the practice of spiritual direction. It’s inherently good to hear the perspectives of those who have walked this path and thought hard about its meaning. My hope is that you’ll slowly — very slowly — chew over their thoughts and digest only the parts that seem fitting
2 Group Discussion
Throughout human history one of the primary modes for learning has been through the free exchange of ideas between mutually interested people. And that’s why we have discussion. Our readings will form the basis of much discussion, but you’re always free to bring up questions or topics that pertain to the practice of spiritual direction.
3 General Reports
One week before each session you’ll submit via email to all the participants in your cohort a 2-page report in which you:
• comment on your readings (what you’re learning, how you’re being challenged, etc.)
• comment on any spiritual direction you’re providing others
• share from the experience of being directed/guided by someone else
• invite others to pray about the circumstances of your own life
• submit any question you’d like to discuss in the upcoming session
You’re not graded by your writing ability. Just reflect and write. This monthly exercise will help you surface things helpful to our time together.
4 Field Work: Offering Direction
In the course of this training each person agrees to accept two directees in order to begin live, hands-on training. Several of these sessions will be recorded and sent to me so that I can offer appropriate feedback.
“Isn’t this premature?” you might ask. I’m reminded here of a conversation between a young bishop and the keen spiritual director Francis de Sales. The young bishop repeatedly asked de Sales how to attain spiritual maturity, and all the old master would answer was, “Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.” When the young man was then sufficiently exasperated, his mentor finally elaborated, “There are lots of people besides you who want me to tell them methods and systems and secret ways of becoming mature, but all I can tell them is that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that is by loving.” (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, Jean Pierre Camus)
The chief way, then, of growing as a spiritual director is by beginning the work of spiritual direction. So let’s begin early. We’ll give you ideas for recruiting “guinea pigs” so that you’re not left to your own resources.
5 Field Work: Receiving Direction
Each participant in the training agrees to be under direction. If you already have a spiritual director, great! If you can get one before entering the training, all the better. If you need help in finding one, we can provide suggestions. The wisdom here is that we expect and desire for others no less than what we expect and desire for ourselves. Therefore, we’re willing to entrust ourselves to the compassionate and wise discernment of another person. Regard it as “spiritual flossing” as well as a way to grow in your own practice and relate to your directees.
6 Supervision
Each month we’ll schedule a 30-minute phone conversation (or a face-to-face meeting if you live close by) to discuss some aspect of the training: readings, recordings, reports, etc.
7 Peer Supervision
During the third, fourth and last sessions we’ll practice peer supervision. In peer supervision you get to unpack with a few others (a subset of the cohort) any aspect of your experience of providing spiritual direction to others. We use a model of peer supervision that’s both simple and useful. If in the future you find spiritual direction to be a regular part of what you offer others, peer supervision is a healthy practice to continue, and the model we use is easily transferable.