Customer Reviews

Guided by the Spirit: A Jesuit Perspective on Spiritual Direction

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Bought it as a required text for a course. A good general overview of the topic. Good historical information re the topic.

Introduction (What is spiritual direction?) Chapter 1 -- The Directee and the Process of Spiritual Growth (Patterns of spiritual growth and development: Direction for beginners, Being Purified by God, Direction for directees who are moving toward God, Direction of directees who have been purified by God; Growth patterns: awakening to spiritual realities, personal appropriation, commitment to the gifts of God, discerning the voice of God; Emotional fervor, dry prayer, and spiritual awakening; final period of purification) Chapter 2 -- Some Particular Types of Directees and Their Needs (Five types of directees: Beginners, Religious converts, Those having a dry and arid prayer life, Contemplative, Those having a roller-coaster experience of prayer and faith; Issues for Beginners: Fear, Anger, Depression, Sexuality, Authority) Chapter 3 -- Prayer and Spiritual Discernment (The mystery of prayer; difficulties in prayer; personal prayer; spiritual discernment; signs of a "good-spirited" directee; religious movements in the director; strategies for spiritual discernment) Chapter 4 -- The Director and the Process of Direction (Community recognition; Gifts needed for direction: Theological and psychological awareness [a balance of Scripture, the Christian ascetical and spiritual traditions, and recent advances in the human sciences including psychology], spiritual experience [personal experience of the Spirit and personal supervision], interpersonal skills [hospitality], self-appropriation [personal competency, goodness, and vision]; The process of spiritual direction [recognizing the work of God]; The director's genuineness, caring, and understanding; Criteria for evaluating spiritual direction [altruism, hope, emotional expression, trust in God, the awareness of mystery]; Issues of transference in spiritual direction; Gender differences in spiritual direction; Supervision for spiritual directors)