Spiritual Directors International Announcements

The Mystery in Death and Life

sdijennifer — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:30:12 -0400

I often dance with mortality and mystery as an interfaith spiritual director and companion to the dying at Zen Hospice Project, which trains volunteers to practice these Five Precepts of Hospice Care developed by its founder:

1) Bring your whole self to the bedside.

2) Welcome everything, push away nothing.

3) Find a place of rest in the middle of things.

4) Cultivate "don't know mind."

5) Don't wait.

Years ago, as a new hospice volunteer and spiritual director overflowing with compassion, openness, and newly acquired skills, I was excited to practice all that I had learned—especially the five precepts.

Everything changed as soon as I met “John.”

Sitting in his wheelchair, I noticed a swastika tattooed on his forearm. Suddenly my body tightened and with it, my open heart.

I’m Jewish and Judaism teaches tolerance. Yet I could not look past the swastika and what it represented to me.

I immediately ended the visit.

I did visit John a few weeks later; this time he was lying in his bed, dead.

When I entered his room, he was still warm, swastika in full view. This time I took a deep breath, began practicing metta, and gently caressed his arms, especially the swastika.

Though painful at the time, my response to John is an exquisite reminder of universal messiness, fallibility, and vulnerability.

I've come to understand the five precepts with fresh eyes.

Bring your whole self to the bedside. I owe it to myself and those I serve to show up more honestly. If a spiritual directee shares something that I resonate with, I might tell them a bit of my own story, which often allows for a more intimate connection.

Welcome everything, push away nothing. We can’t choose how we are going to feel, and we can’t serve everyone. Welcoming everything tenderizes me to my own and others' suffering. And joy. By welcoming everything, I am striving to live more wholeheartedly, even when the challenges feel daunting.

Find a place of rest in the middle of things. I can offer compassion, but as much as I want to, I cannot fix another’s circumstances. My ability to serve depends upon holding that distinction.

Cultivate "don't know mind." One can never know what's going on inside another's head, heart, and body, nor do we know what our future holds or when we will say final goodbyes. We can stay present, respond to what arises, and act from the most genuine place.

Don't wait. If we do our best in each moment—fully, passionately, courageously—that is what truly matters.

As I have evolved as a spiritual director, no longer are the Five Precepts simply intellectual guideposts but rather a dynamic life force within me. I make a choice, moment by moment, to be fully present. When I have the urge to move away from difficult feelings or self-judgment arises, I sit down, close my eyes, ground my feet firmly on the floor, take slow, deep breaths, and softly whisper, "Yes!”

Rachel Katz, MA, MEd, is a member of SDI and has worked in the medical field and the arts for over twelve years. She currently provides practical, emotional, and spiritual support to dying patients at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, California, USA.

A Festival for Meaning (part two)

sdijennifer — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:40:19 -0500

A Festival for Meaning (part two)

Jan Phillips, spiritual guide and author, delighted a standing-room-only crowd with her humor and photographic gift at Seattle University’s Search for Meaning Book Festival on February 4. She shared her spiritual journey from secondhand religion to a personal faith.

Telling how the pain of dismissal from the convent in her teens gradually became a source of grace, Jan advised in “dismissing anything that insults the soul.”

“Track back what you know to the event when you learned it,” she encouraged, “and get good at telling your story in a beautiful and effective way.”

“The big adventure of the movement of evolutionary creativity is toward kindness,” Jan reassured, “and being an ever brighter light."

Reflection: What life events can you track back to and see as sources of grace?

Through Thick and Thin

sdijennifer — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:22:25 -0500

Through Thick and Thin: Reflections from Italy

A tear slipped from my spiritual directee’s rough, bearded face as he explored gratitude for a longtime friend now in hospice care. “Yeah,” he said. “My buddy and I have been together through thick and thin.” For him, thick and thin referred to good times and bad; times of plenty and times of want. Lately, I’ve been pondering thick and thin from a different perspective.

As my excitement grows for the upcoming Spiritual Directors International pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, memories of my first pilgrimage are bubbling up. Rome and Assisi, Italy, are places that provide some of my happiest memories of experiencing both thick and thin. Rome for me was thick. Assisi was thin. Allow me to explain.

Thick time for me is sacred time. One hour is one hour—sixty minutes—no more, no less. But that same period of time can be experienced very differently. One hour at a tedious board meeting or shopping for groceries is often experienced very differently than the same sixty minutes spent at the bedside of a dying friend or in the arms of a lover. Time has the capacity to become thick depending on the amount of attention and intention I offer to that moment. I still remember well my first shot of espresso slugged down at a Roman café; the first gelato gliding across my tongue at a local gelateria; an afternoon riposo watching an old woman water the geraniums on her sun-drenched balcony; the scent of orange blossoms on the Roman night air after a day of walking the busy streets of the Eternal City. Those moments were thick. They became sacred time. Rome provided one experience after another of thick time.

Thin space for me is sacred space. I can be in a place and experience just the surface of my surroundings. I can view everything as distinct from myself: a curiosity, another ho-hum wall of a building, or another trap for tourists. I can also dive deep through the illusion of separateness and pierce the veil. Approaching with intention, I can plumb the depth of story that pulses through every piazza, rises from every rock, and beats in every building. From my first time in Assisi twenty-two years ago, I can still hear the reverberations of whispers in the tiny room where Clare of Assisi prayed for forty-one years; the deep silence of the woods outside the hermitage of the Carceri; and the feeling of coming home when I caught my first glimpse of the pink-stoned city of Assisi rising above the Umbrian valley. Those places were thin. They became sacred space. Every cobblestone of Assisi provided access to a world of thin space.

Undertaking a pilgrimage is to open oneself to the experience of sacred times and sacred spaces. I look forward to returning to Assisi and Rome. I encourage you to find the means to join me and the other pilgrims. Together we will be with each other through thick and thin.

Editor’s note: David Lidel, TOR, is a Franciscan brother and one of the pilgrim guides for the SDI Interfaith Pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, in 2012. Registration is still open for the pilgrimage--join us cultivate compassion in Assisi! For more information visit http://bit.ly/SDIPilgrimage.

Catholic archdiocese training guidelines for spiritual directors

sdipegge — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:33:37 -0400

Reporting for the Clarion Herald in "Spiritual direction in archdiocese has important guidelines", Peter Finney, Jr. writes,

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has established training requirements for those interested in serving as spiritual directors within the archdiocese. The guidelines have been in effect for many years, said Archbishop Gregory Aymond, but they are being emphasized again because of the importance of the ministry in leading others to God.

"Spiritual direction is an ancient tradition in our church,” Archbishop Aymond said. “Those who serve in this ministry are given the privilege to guide others, to walk with others in the important journey of faith with Christ and in service to his people. It is important that spiritual directors are properly formed in order that they can lead people and serve them with genuine faith and integrity.”

Furthermore, spiritual directors are expected to:

complete an approved formation program that includes teaching on the meaning, theology and practice of spiritual direction; the theology and practice of discernment; and what distinguishes spiritual direction from pastoral counseling, therapy, faith companioning and catechesis...

Links

The full story: "Spiritual direction in archdiocese has important guidelines

Helpful tips when you seek and interview a spiritual director
Seek and Find: A Worldwide Resource Guide of Available Spiritual Directors
Searchable interactive Google map of programs worldwide that form, train, and enrich a spiritual director
Guidelines for Ethical Conduct published by Spiritual Directors International

Spiritual Directors International publishes Guidelines for Ethical Conduct (in English and Spanish), which provides a framework for a healthy spiritual direction relationship. You may want to ask your prospective spiritual directors about their formation and training, on-going education, if they are in supervision for their ministry and if they abide by the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct.

Spiritual Directors International does not endorse or recommend particular spiritual directors. SDI is not a certifying body, but rather a global learning community that supports spiritual directors in their ministry with educational programs, publications, and contemplative practices.

SDI Plants Azaleas in Atlanta, Georgia

sdipegge — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:44:38 -0400

SDI celebrates Earth Day at Ignatius House in Atlanta, Georgia by planting two azaleas.

The SDIworld Coordinating Council proclaimed scripture, poetry and stories about the importance of being in nature and respecting all creation from Aboriginal Australia, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. See Atlanta, Georgia, May 2011 photographs.

Local Atlanta community members helped to plant the azaleas, watering Earth and the azaleas with water blessed during the Cultivating Compassion educational events. The water came from all over the world as participants from five continents contributed water to a blessed bowl during the education events.

During the Contemplative Retreat, participants contributed ... and poured more blessed water of hope for a compassionate future.

Link: Atlanta, Georgia, May 2011 photographs

Going green is about more than using fewer resources; it’s also about giving back resources to a world that’s given much to each of us. That’s why Spiritual Directors International plants trees (and azaleas) ...

Every one of us participates in shaping a world that supports life that flourishes. We invite you to join Spiritual Directors International’s commitment to foster forests by planting trees.

Atlanta, Georgia, May 2011 photographs

Do you have a tree planting story to share?

A Calculus of Compassion and Kindness

sdipegge — Wed, 11 May 2011 01:11:31 -0400

David DeSteno, PhD, writing in "The Calculus of Compassion: What determines whether we feel another's pain?" says,

This and related findings clearly demonstrate that the capacity for compassion, and indeed our characters in general, are not fixed, but are determined dynamically moment-to-moment outside of our awareness in an attempt to balance the pressures of social living. At first, this may seem dispiriting, but in actuality it can be liberating. In the end, each of us has the potential to be not only a sinner, but also a saint.

Can you identify how compassion arises within you?
Are there specific practices that help you cultivate compassion?
Who inspires you during this time of your life?

Full story: Psychology Today, May 11, 2011, "The Calculus of Compassion: What determines whether we feel another's pain?" David DeSteno, PhD

IMAGES "Cultivating Compassion" in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

sdipegge — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:08:11 -0400

April 28 - May 3, 2011: Hundreds of spiritual guides and seekers participated in the "Cultivating Compassion" 2011 Spiritual Directors International educational events.

You can view photographs via a slideshow at the SDI website, and a Facebook photo album. Delight!

Links

Please share your stories...post a reply.

Cultivating Compassion educational events on Atlanta television

sdijennifer — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:44:57 -0400

Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia! Spiritual direction education will be broadcast on television thanks to AIBTV; Angela Rice and Sharon Phillip pictured here. SDI is collaborating with AIBTV to make more spiritual direction education available from the Cultivating Compassion educational events. Please send prayers of gratefulness to AIBTV!

Good Friday and Earth Day Converge in 2011

sdipegge — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:20:37 -0400

"Compassion Mandala" by Robert Lentz, OFM

On April 22, 2011, Christians commemorate Good Friday, and Earth Day is celebrated. This is a day to cultivate compassion. In addition, the Jewish holiday of Pesach, Passover, is celebrated April 19 - 26, 2011.

In Quantum Grace, SDI member Judy Cannato writes about Good Friday: "It is easy to want to stand separate and apart today. It is tempting to want to divide the world into 'us' and 'them.' But this, we know, is an illusion."

Indeed, contemplative practice illuminates this truth--we are connected. Do you find this to be true for you?

Another perspective connecting Good Friday and the Earth comes from Care for Creation [a Franciscan spirituality of the earth], written by Ilia Delio, OSF; Keith Douglass Warner, OFM; and SDI member Pamela Wood. This is a perspective about what it could mean to take a "contemplative approach to our modern-day ecological crisis":

"If we dare to look and really see, we encounter Creation crucified--at our hands. This is truly a heartbreaking and terrifying reality, almost impossible to bear without the strong spiritual grounding that contemplation offers. If Francis were to walk our earth today, he would encounter for the first time his Sister Mother Earth, Brother Wind and Sister Water polluted and desecrated, the creatures he loved endangered and some gone forever. Francis never experienced this type of ecological devastation since it occurred largely after the Industrial Revolution, yet the way he lived his life can teach us how to contemplate such realities and then find the courage to act."

Additionally, William P. Brown and Stanley P. Saunders explain in their op-ed, "Good Friday and Earth Day: A Providential Convergence":

By a rare coincidence Earth Day falls on Good Friday this year, the first time ever. (The next time is in 2095.) “Good Friday” is the day Christians commemorate Christ’s crucifixion. Earth Day calls attention to the continuing crucifixion of our planet. While some may consider this chronological convergence a rude distraction from the Holy Week of Christ’s Passion, we believe the coincidence is providential. Both Good Friday and Earth Day draw our attention to suffering, death, and the hope of redemption.

Furthermore,

With Earth Day and Good Friday converging this year, a lesson is to be learned. It begins with the dawning awareness of a connection that has long been forgotten, namely, the indisolluble bond between Christ and creation. Christ, the Word made flesh, dwelt in a world made of flesh. Christians call this the incarnation: when God saw fit to become part of creation. Faith in the incarnation takes seriously God's creation.

Continue reading the one page op-ed, "Good Friday and Earth Day: A Providential Convergence"

Finally, in the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life article "Why Earth Day is a Jewish Holiday", Robert Rabinowitz says:

In the shema prayer, it describes both the earthly benefits--rain, fertility and abundance--for listening to the commandments and loving God, and the costs--drought and famine--for ignoring God's word (Deut. 11: 13-21). One compelling way to read this text is to think of it as suggesting that a major way for us, as individuals and as a society, to judge our actions and policies is by their environmental consequences.

Reflect

What is evoked in you from these insights and perspectives?
What contemplative practices will help you honor the Christian teachings from Good Friday, Passover from Judaism, and Earth Day?

Please reply with your thoughts.

Meditation Cultivates Compassion, in the news

sdipegge — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:26:18 -0400

When we decide to make time for contemplative practice, of any type, we cultivate spaciousness which leads us to act with greater compassion, empathy, creativity, service, and connection. Our contemplative practice affects ourselves, our interactions with family, in the workplace, within our communities, with the Earth, and the Sacred some name God.

Meditation makes the daily news as people continue to seek meaning and connection. Contemplative people cultivate compassion with prayer, meditation, and contemplative practice. Jeff Gitterman, reporting for The Huffington Post in the article "The Importance of Meditation" writes:

The first step in learning to harness the power of our attention is to become aware of how it moves. To do this, we need to find a way to disengage from the stream of thoughts that preoccupies us. This is one of the fundamental reasons that people practice meditation, in all its many forms.

Link to the rest of the story from The Huffington Post, "The Importance of Meditation"

Do you meditate or pray? What is your contemplative practice, and how does it change you?
Please offer your thoughts for the blog readers.