Spiritual direction is “help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God and to live out the consequences of this relationship.” (William A. Barry & William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction).
Spiritual direction is concerned with a person’s actual experience of a relationship with God. The religious experience is not isolated, nor does it consist of extraordinary events. It is becoming more aware of what happens in an ongoing relationship between the person and God. Most often this is a relationship that is experienced in prayer.
Spiritual direction is also a relationship that is going somewhere. God is leading the person to deeper faith and more generous service – in other words, there is a “movement”.
The real spiritual director is God. God touches the human heart directly. The human spiritual director helps a person respond to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship.
Spiritual direction is not counseling – giving advice and solving problems.