Spiritual direction is an exploration of your spiritual path with a person trained in listening, deep reflection and discernment. Those are all carefully chosen, important words so let’s break it down. We explore with you. We don’t tell you what you need to know, do or have in order to be spiritual. It is essential that you feel the freedom that comes with exploration in spiritual direction. It is your path we are exploring. No one else’s. The time you spend with a spiritual director is supposed to be about you taking the next step along your spiritual path. Not taking a step your director thinks you ought to take. We’ll talk a lot more about this as we progress. The path is spiritual. We are not therapists poking around your psyche. All of life is spiritual—God is found in all our experiences. With that understanding we will explore with you many aspects of your life. But we keep the emphasis on spirituality. We are trained in listening. Yes, training is necessary in order to listen well. In our culture today, listening is a lost art. We are trained in deep reflection. Spiritual directors learn how to interact with you so that as you talk about your life, we can help you spiral deeper into areas where you find the most meaning. We are trained in discernment. Within the Christian tradition lies a lot of wisdom about making faithful choices. A good director is trained in the principles of discernment.
The early members of AA were still closely connected to the Oxford Group. Bill continued to have misgivings about their evangelical leanings. He felt that this would prevent too many alcoholics from accepting the help that such a program could offer. Bill had been influenced by a physician called Dr. Silkwood who promoted the idea that alcoholism was a disease and not moral failing. The early members of AA became convinced that it was a disease that could be cured with a spiritual program. In order to make this cure available to more people it was necessary for Alcoholics Anonymous split completely away from the Oxford Group. In 1939, the group released a book called Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than 100 Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. This later became known as the Big Book. It has become the most successful self-help publication of all time, with over 20 million copies sold. Most of the content was written by Bill, but he did get a great deal of help from the earl...
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