Christopher Thomas PhD, Toronto, ON

Spiritual direction is a term and practice familiar enough to Roman Catholics, who have embraced it at least since St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions founded the Society of Jesus or Jesuits in the 16th century.

But instances of spiritual direction — also known today by such ‘softer’ names as spiritual friendship or companionship — are found in Jesus’ own ministry (his “Come and see” to the curious disciples in John 1, and Nicodemus’ timid nighttime visit in chapter 3); and then, notably, in the activity of the hermit Desert Fathers and Mothers of the early centuries in Palestine, Egypt, and later Europe, anticipating the rise of monasticism in the Eastern and Western churches.

Less often is spiritual direction associated with the reformed Protestant traditions but in part that underestimates the practice there, that minimal picture is surely changing, as the work and growth of the Haden Institute (founded 1994) suggests, with its base in western North Carolina, and a Canadian offshoot in Niagara Falls.

Named for its founder, Episcopal (Anglican) priest Robert (Bob) Haden, the institution is known for its courses, conferences, and services in what the website at www.hadeninstitute.com calls “the transformational gifts of spirituality and Jungian psychology” — the two now recognized as complementary, precisely, in emphasizing inner and outer transformation.

In fact, that recognition owes in no small part to Haden himself, who is still active but no longer directs the institute, a role played by the gifted and personable Rev. Allen Proctor. Haden, already a skilled pastoral counsellor in his own right, met and was impressed by the aging Jung on late visits by the great man to the U.S.; he went on to work deeply and at length with disciples of Jung in America and Switzerland before going on to found the institute in Asheville in 1994.

Over 30 years it has drawn on a distinguished teaching faculty over the years and has become a member of the Graduate Theological Foundation. More ecumenical and Protestant in flavour than Haden’s Canadian branch, which has tended to be more Catholic, suiting its location at the Carmelite monastery in Niagara Falls and the denominational traditions of south-central Ontario.

A 90-mile drive from Toronto, Carmel is accessible to the Hamilton and Toronto airports, and those of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY, across the river. The house not only stands on a beautiful grassed and treed site but has well-appointed guest and meeting rooms, a large and striking neo Gothic chapel (which is also the North American focus of the cult of St. Therese of Lisieux) and — important for a retreat house! — excellent food.

It was at the Canadian house over seven days in April to May 2022 that I and twenty others met, in smaller family-like groups with their own mentors — Canadians and Americans. Our cohort, whose program started in September 2020, was to have met physically four times at Niagara, but the COVID pandemic intervened, and this was as a result our only face-to-face gathering.

Another larger cohort sets out each year in North Carolina, based at Haden’s rustic lakeside home, called, Kanuga. As a result, our gathering at Niagara represented extremely warm and welcoming face-time, a tone Haden makes an effort to cultivate at all its gatherings (including its annual summer conferences at Kanuga).

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Historically, when Catholics sought out spiritual direction they generally turned to a priest or perhaps a nun or brother — to ‘professional’ Catholics in vows. But those lie pretty thin on the ground these days, and more and more of us find ourselves looking to lay people for guidance, counsel, and reassurance.

Hence the popularity with the laity of ecumenical programs like Haden’s, Shalem, and the spiritual direction streams in theological schools — it is to mature lay Catholics and non-Catholics that people turn when feeling called to spiritual direction, pastoral counselling, sacramental preparation, and outreach to patients, including palliated ones, in healthcare institutions.

What exactly, when you come down to it, is spiritual direction? How does spiritual direction of companioning differ from (yet surely overlap) psychotherapy or pastoral counselling? All of these take place in the psyche and senses, but spiritual direction — and Jungian psychology as well — do not confine themselves to the individual psyche. Each implies some larger Presence and, conversation. I recommend the reading of a survey or introduction, such as Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Director, Spiritual Companion (Paulist, 2001).

Edwards’s own institute, Shalem, on its website defines spiritual direction as “an ongoing relationship in which you seek to be attentive to your spiritual life by meeting with another person (the director) on a regular basis for the purpose of becoming more attuned to God’s Presence in all of life.”

Essentially, a director, friend, or companion holds space for us, helping to enable us better to reflect on and grow in our sense of God — as AA says, “however we understood God” — already at work in our lives and already inviting us further and perhaps differently on our spiritual path.

To a potential director, people often bring such questions as “Where has the faith gone that I felt as a child (or in the past)?”; “Does God really love me? I don’t seem to feel anything anymore when I pray;” or “I’m feeling called to make some change in my life; how do I know if God is speaking to me?”

Often, we are wondering how to gain (or regain) a sense of authenticity, satisfaction, and purpose in our lives, and such questions tend to arise when we feel at a turning-point in life — the death of a spouse, say, or when considering marriage or change of job or career.

Increasingly, as well, people are wondering about their dreams, as in: “I keep having this dream, or a version of it; are my dreams trying to say something to me.” I was led to Haden and spiritual direction by several years of dreamwork with an analyst, during which I experienced noticeable, sometimes disorienting changes in myself .

People feeling a call to ministry, especially, are usually enjoined to take up with a director; but, when you think about it, probably all of us, always should have a director or spiritual friend of some kind if the spiritual is a vital dimension of our lives and if we desire a more intense experience of it.

St. Ignatius spoke of ‘consolation’ and ‘desolation’ in our spirits; and, the more we grow spiritually, the more important discerning such states or phases becomes — just the sort of thing in which regular conversation with a director or close friend can help us.

Where is God in this sense I’m having of wanting to regain vibrancy. I, for instance, months after finishing training (and as I’m embarking on Haden’s program in dream work), am seeking light in how to begin my own practice in direction:

Does my impulse primarily to reach out to gay men come from God? Is that too restrictive to be viable? Yet, some of the most troubled folks I’ve ever known are those charged with or convicted of abuse and now (or in the past) behind bars; am I authentically called to reach out to them? Where is God in this struggle?

We do not need to be St. Therese of Lisieux or the Cure of Ars (St. Jean Vianney, on whose feast I write this) to have such feelings and pose such questions, though — who is to say? — we may in fact have the makings of such ‘special’ friends of God, who seeks to act within the humble envelope of all our lives. Not all conversions are dramatic, but all are called to be converted: “Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Perhaps this period during and after the papal visit is a good one for many of us to ask these questions. One thing for sure: Asking them is usually more profitable in the listening presence of another, especially one more seasoned than we feel ourselves to be.

By the way, Haden and any other respectable program in spiritual direction (like the other ‘psychic’ professions) requires its directors themselves to be under direction from another, and to have in addition a supervisor to whom to bring troubling questions that arise in their practice.

Essentially, every time you find yourself asking, “I wonder what was happening there; Did I handle that correctly?”; or “I wish I hadn’t said that,” is enjoined to bring those questions (without of course violating the directee’s confidence) to their supervisor. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”

Christopher Thomas served as a professor of Art and Architectural History at UVic.