We listen together for The One who lovingly guides us both.

Services

Spiritual Direction

I choose to offer spiritual direction not within the framework of teacher/student, or to provide something that I have that you do not have. Those models focus on some kind of knowledge or “right way” the director supposedly possesses.

The model used as we “Sit for the Rest” is more reciprocal, based on each of our particularities and perspectives. There is an agreement for mutual accountability as well as mutual confidentiality.

My training is helpful in listening as you share your life’s conversation with God, however you name that One, and to query and consider with you if your response to that conversation is in accord with your deepest desire.

I, as director/companion, am committed to be in daily prayer for the directee; offering, too, my training, time, tools and tenderness.

Together, we sit in the Presence, already with and in us both, for our own rest and for those others of us…the rest of us!

Ignatian Spiritual Exercises & Companioning

Until I experienced the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises myself, I had a love of Jesus, but it felt like he was as distant to me as any person who lived 2000 years ago in a different culture. The Ignatian Exercises took me through ways of praying with scripture that helped me understand how Jesus was and is an example, a foretaste of what we each are called to be. . .children of a Source that is so beyond our normal understanding, it takes dedication and intentional time to “get it” on a level beyond understanding. Whether consoled, troubled, or left cold by what we contemplate, we are invited in the Exercises to welcome it all and share it with Jesus, who is always present in Spirit.

The time commitment for those who are compelled to embark on this experience is intensive: At least 45 minutes of prayer is recommended with the provided materials each day for several months, as well as weekly meetings with a spiritual director trained in companioning for the Ignation Spiritual Exercises.

Two of my favorite offerings from The Exercises are as follows:

The First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

(contemporary version by David Fleming, SJ)

“The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening God’s life in me.”

The Suscipe  

“Take Lord and receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will.  All that I have and call my own.  You have given it all to me.  To you, Lord, I return it.  Everything is yours; do with it what you will.  Give me only your love and your grace.  That is enough for me.”   

Centering Prayer

We live basically in two dimensions: the horizontal life in time/space, and one that we can describe as the vertical life that includes and extends beyond the limits we normally think are there.

Our small sense of self is generally in charge and we become habituated to our normal ways of thinking and doing. We come to believe, usually unconsciously, that this small perspective is the whole story.

But we can move into the experience of Something/One larger and lasting, and integrate that larger perspective with our life in time and space.

Centering prayer is a way of praying without words, presenting our whole selves—body, mind, and spirit—to God for a sort of “virus scan” or “defragmentation.” In becoming aware of and welcoming those parts of us that are normally automatic ways of thinking and being, and then, gently offering them as part of the prayer, we become less attached to them! The practice of seeing what I am normally identified with, and then returning ever so gently to opening to the Presence and Action of the holy Spirit, helps me become gentler also in my relationships outside my time of prayer.

Centering prayer is deeply embedded in the Christian tradition and has, in the last several decades come back into the mainstream from the monasteries, where it had been relegated for centuries as “only for monks.” It is not about emptying the mind, but welcoming the mind as part of what you bring to prayer and then practicing letting go of the attachment to it.

I have practiced centering prayer for 20+ years and find that this prayer of opening to the Presence and Action of God (however you choose to name that One) is as important to my well-being as is eating, drinking, and eliminating.

Offerings to the Public

I speak regularly to groups in churches and facilitate retreats. I am a presenter on the method of Christian meditation called centering prayer, trained by Contemplative Outreach.

I also offer my experiences with transformation in relationship through practicing the Presence of God in all things, especially in the spiritual practice of the Welcoming Prayer.

I serve on the ministry team at an ecumenical wholeness service, giving meditations and officiating communion. This evening service includes beautiful Taize music by candlelight and meets 9 times a year in Georgetown, TX.