Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction [Paperback]

Margaret Guenther (Author), Alan Jones (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1992

Guenther uses the images of the spiritual director as host, teacher, and midwife to describe the ministry of spiritual direction today. She pays particular attention to spiritual direction for women, and addresses such down-to-earth questions as setting, time, and privacy. The stories of real people bring the practice of spiritual direction alive. “In the pages that follow, I will attempt to describe the shape that spiritual direction might take for people of our time, aware that the subject is an elusive one. I am speaking to the beginner, those persons lay or ordained, with or without formal theological training, who find themselves drawn to this ministry. Perhaps they feel the stirring of their own unacknowledged gifts. Or perhaps they wonder about receiving direction, whether it is a ministry available to ‘ordinary people’ or reserved for the especially holy. I hope some dark corners will be illuminated and some questions answered.”

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is a solid introduction to the art of guiding others in Christian spiritual growth. Guenther, wife, mother, Episcopal priest, and seminary professor, uses feminine images, especially midwifery, to describe the director's role, but insists that both women and men can assist spiritual birth. Her treatment is thoroughly human, and at the same time she is considerate of gender issues. Guenther focuses on sins of self-hatred and self-contempt as well as pride and greed. An excellent addition to its field, this is for seminary and public libraries.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

In the very best sense, hers is a book of non-direction: earthed and wise, compassionate and unsentimental, practical and contemplative.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: Cowley Publications (January 25, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561010561
• ISBN-13: 978-1561010561
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Anglican
  • #11 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Episcopalian

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you hear what I hear?, July 10, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Paperback)

In her slim volume Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction, Episcopal priest and spiritual director Margaret Guenther has provided a jewel of a book for those interested in spiritual direction, and more particularly, for those who are interested in becoming spiritual directors.

Spiritual direction is rather difficult to classify. It is part art, part science, part skill. It bears relations to pastoral care and psychological therapy, but there are important differences. `Spiritual direction is not psychotherapy nor is it an inexpensive substitute, although the disciplines are compatible and frequently share raw material. Spiritual direction is not pastoral counseling, nor is it to be confused with the mutuality of deep friendships, for it is unashamedly hierarchical.'

This hierarchy is one of the stumbling blocks for many, ironically particularly for those in the clergy. One must have trust in the spiritual director. To be a spiritual director, one must inspire trust, the kind of trust that enables the directee to understand that it is for that one's good that all effort will be focused. `What a gift to bring to another, the gift of disinterested, loving attention!'

Guenther's first chapter talks about this aspect of trust and attention by likening spirtual direction to a journey. Many spiritual writers have used the metaphor of the journey in the past, so frequently perhaps that it almost becomes an inside joke among some. However, Guenther's exploration of the importance of hospitality toward the stranger on a journey sets a good foundation.

For the spiritual director and the spiritual directee, many aspects of preparation are the same. A respect for silence, an importance placed on attention, and an openness and willingness for questioning are shared aspects. For the one seeking spiritual direction, the necessity for looking beyond books such as this toward a spiritual direction `in real life' is underscored.

Making the space a safe one is also important for the spiritual director. This requires more than simple confidentiality. It requires a degree of self-control in gauging one's reactions, allowing silence, not adding simple or quick answers, and recognising one's own appearance and tendencies for response.

In the chapter entitled `Good Teachers', Guenther explores the teaching and learning aspects of spiritual direction. `So what does the spiritual director teach? In the simplest and also most profound terms, the spiritual director is simultaneously a learner and a teacher of discernment.'

Discernment requires perception and judgment. The spiritual director needs to be open and experienced. The directee needs to be similarly open, and willing to be known and reflective upon the tasks of discernment called forth by the director. Both director and directee must be willing to discover deeper truths about themselves.

Using the example of Jesus as a teacher, and looking as qualities of good teachers, Guenther relates these to the tasks of spiritual direction. Just as teachers sometimes encourage elements of fun and play in their lessons, directors and directees must not get bogged down in a false sense of seriousness that puts a pall on the journey.

Quoting from the spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, Guenther relates the problem of this approach. The Cloud says of such displays of piety, `Sometimes their eyes look like the eyes of wounded sheep near death' and goes on to counsel avoidance of the extreme and the eccentric: `Far better a modest countenance, a calm, composed bearing, and a merry candor'.

Additionally, good teachers question, instill hope, and are willing to evaluate progress. Spiritual guidance may not be graded in the same manner as school work, but if it is to have meaning, there must be a way of evaluating. Finally, good teachers are willing learners. Guenther relates her own experience to being somewhat like Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Helen Keller: young, inexperienced, with imperfect vision herself, she set off to the do the near impossible.

One particular thing spiritual directors focus upon is the teaching and learning of prayer, and Guenther draws the experience and writing of spiritual leaders in the past. She says of homework she rarely assigns, but frequently suggests. Of course, the dedicated seeker will look forward to such homework and exercises. The task of the spiritual director will then be to test the validity of the experience for the seeker.

In her final two chapters, Guenther brings in her own experience as a woman in spiritual direction, and looks to images in the bible and in life for metaphors for spiritual direction. Drawing form Meister Eckhart and the images of the Hebrew midwifes, she likens spiritual direction to being a midwife for the soul. Drawing on fairly recent spiritual exploration and writing by women in academic and theological research, she looks at some of the particular gifts brought to the task of spiritual direction by women. Women have a greater likelihood to have a natural gift for listening. Also, given that women have been `outsiders' in clerical and spiritual circles for so much of human history, that can be a gift to those who have similar feelings of being outside, alone, or otherwise different.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who would like a glimpse of what spiritual direction is all about, from the standpoint of a woman who has been personally involved on both sides of the relationship. It is also a good guide for those who are interested in pursuing the vocation of a spiritual director.

Margaret Guenther is an Episcopal priest serving a parish in New York City. She is also on the faculty of General Theological Seminary, teaching topics related to spiritual direction. She is a popular speaker, retreat leader, and recognised as an expert voice in the growing field of spiritual direction.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very sensible and realistic approach to Spiritual Direction!, August 7, 1999

By 

Patricia De Stefano ([e-mail]) (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Paperback)

I am a reader from Argentina and really loved reading the book, which I found to be a very sensible and realistic approach to Spiritual Guidance. I am Roman Catholic, finished a two year chourse on Spiritual directiion and learnt a lot with M. Guenthers' book. She puts into words, in a very simple manner what Spiritual Direction is all about. Her examples are very clear and I found the book so interesting to read. I especially liked chapter 3, where she compares the director to a midwife. I have read many other books on this subject, bun none was so practical as this one.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learning Spiritual Direction from a Masterful "Amateur", June 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Paperback)

In this hospitable book of just four chapters, Margaret Guenther, professor and priest by profession welcomes us into her academic office -- transformed into sacred space by an icon here, a candle there, and a homey plaid rug in the middle of the room -- and introduces us to her amateur vocation, that of spiritual director. Her gifts as a good teacher prompt her to explain to us carefully and patiently what spiritual direction is ("holy listening"), what its purpose is ("to help people discover how to define themselves, not only in relation to the world, but also to God) and how she has learned over the years to go about it. In contrast to Alan Jones, who seems intentionally to avoid the "how-to" question in his Exploring Spiritual Direction, Guenther's book is packed with practical explanation of how she goes about the task of directing. Drawing on her experience with hundreds of directees over the years, she offers vignettes drawn from actual experience, which shed light on the process of direction, its pitfalls, and its benefits. Yet, however laced the book is from beginning to end with practical advice, it is not a "how-to" manual. For all of these practical tips are shared in the course of a free flowing meditation on key portions of scripture which have given shape to her understanding and practice of direction over the years. From Abraham's welcoming of strangers in Genesis 18 we come to appreciate that direction, too, involves hospitality. From Jesus' encounter with the rich young man in Mark 10 we are invited to consider what it means for the director to be a "good teacher" in the sense that Jesus was. From the "born again" conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3 and the experience of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1 we come to appreciate the honor and wonder involved in attending to our own spiritual birth and that of another. Finally, issuing from the conversation with the woman at the well in John 4 we begin to appreciate the unique contribution of women to the art of direction. In all of this Guenther the amateur, teaches us wisely and patiently what she does, and invites us to consider how we might undertake this ministry of "holy listening" which she so dearly loves.