Spiritual Direction
There are seasons in our lives when we wrestle with God and our faith doesn’t fit the way it once did. Or perhaps we want to know and experience God more deeply and be more attentive to what God is doing in our lives. We want to nurture our relationship with God, but we realize we need someone to join us in that process.
Spiritual direction is about enriching your life in God
What Is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction is a one-on-one conversation, in which a "directee" seeks the accompaniment and discernment of a spiritual director. Spiritual direction looks and can feel very much like therapy or counselling, but its concern and focus are different. The focus of spiritual direction is the directee's life in and with God, with the assumption that God deals directly with each individual.
Spiritual Direction is marked by such things as disclosure of thought, the opening of the soul, watchfulness, and attention to oneself in the presence of another, the director, who listens carefully and discerningly.
What Is The Purpose of Spiritual Direction?
The purpose of spiritual direction is spiritual formation:
cultivating the ability to be attentive and responsive to God’s love and leading
discerning God’s presence and action
deepening one’s knowledge of both self and God
Spiritual direction explores life experience, assuming that God is the depth dimension of all experience.
It explores one’s prayer experience, assuming that God is especially active in prayer.
It explores the inner life assuming that God speaks in and illuminates the heart.
The goal is to live as one who is fully human and fully alive.
Spiritual Directors
Ron Klok. My practice and participation in spiritual direction began in the early 1990s as a follow-up to my first experiences of psychotherapy with a psychologist. I found myself wanting to explore the specifically God-related dynamics of my inner life: how I lived and experienced God's love, healing, and guidance. Early on in my career as a pastor, I took the advice of Eugene Peterson (The Message) who says that it is imperative for pastors to have a spiritual director.
In my first year of ministry, I began to practice days of silence, prayer, retreat, and spiritual direction, a practice that has continued ever since. These practices have been instrumental in helping me sort out my life and experiences in relation to the divine and have brought me significant healing and grace. God questions are of particular interest to me.
I completed my training in 2004 and have been directing ever since. Part of my practice involves leading InterMission Silent Retreats, offering others the opportunity to get away from the noise of daily life to experience God in silence.
I am a co-founder and member of the leadership team of The Studion School for Spiritual Direction, a school which trains those who wish to become directors
Contact: rev.klok@gmail.com
Shelly King. I believe God is continually inviting us, through every means possible, to a more familiar, personal, and mature experience of relationship with him. I believe that includes finding and flourishing in the place God has for us in this world.
In spiritual direction, I offer an opportunity for people to share and reflect on the way these invitations show up in their lives, with the desired result that they may grow in their ability to respond in freedom and confidence.
I received my training at the FCJ Christian Life Centre in Calgary and at St. Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in Wales. I offer individual and group spiritual direction, and am happy to accompany seekers through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I am also conversant with the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual growth.
Contact: shellydking@gmail.com
Heather Cowie. I completed both The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius at Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario as well as my training at Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton in 2004. I have been a practicing spiritual director since. I am available to meet with people to accompany them as they explore the story of their life with God. Over time, I have cultivated a special interest in Ignatian spirituality, directing Ignatian retreats and accompanying people through The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in daily life. I am able, and love, to accompany those seeking to experience the full Spiritual Exercises in daily life (the 19th Annotation).
I offer in person spiritual direction for residence of Calgary, Alberta. Outside of this area I offer virtual sessions.
Contact: hthrcowie@gmail.com
I believe God shows up not only in grand, life-changing events, but also, maybe even more significantly, in the mundane, ordinary moments of life. I also believe that one of the richest things we can offer to another is space for the other to share and process their stories. In spiritual direction, I offer that space: space for you to talk about and reflect on your experience of God, to name your doubts, to voice your fears, anger, hopes, and disappointments. My role is to listen to you and to listen with you to what God might be doing in your life, so that you can discern how to respond to whatever it is God might be inviting you to.
I earned my MDiv at Regent College and received my spiritual direction training through The Studion. I love to journey with anyone who desires to explore their relationship with God more deeply. Having worked in church and campus ministry for a number of years, I have a particular desire to accompany others in ministry.
Contact: gilchristcoaching.com or julianne@gilchristcoaching.com