Experience and Convergence in Spiritual Direction

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J Relig Health (2015) 54:264–278

DOI 10.1007/s10943-014-9824-4

ORIGINAL PAPER

Experience and Convergence in Spiritual Direction

Jean Evans

Published online: 28 January 2014


 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Abstract The practice of spiritual direction concerns the human experience of God. As
praxis, spiritual direction has a long tradition in Western Christianity. It is a process rooted
in spirituality with theology as its foundation. This paper explores the convergences
between aspects of philosophy (contemplative awareness), psychology (Rogerian client-
centered approach) and phenomenology. There are significant points of convergence
between phenomenology and spiritual direction: first, in Ignatius of Loyola’s phenome-
nological approach to his religious experience; second, in the appropriation by spiritual
directors of concepts of epochē and empathy; third, in the process of ‘‘unpacking’’ religious
experience within a spiritual direction interview

Keywords Religious experience  Spiritual direction  Contemplative


awareness  Client-centered therapy  Phenomenology  Ignatius of Loyola

If this essay were to begin with the words, ‘‘It’s all about the experience,’’ it would not be
an exaggeration. The subject of constant monitoring and concern, experience is the life-
blood of social media. It is the source of data for the historian and the scientist, the focal
point of psychology and of therapeutic practice. ‘‘Experience is the life of the self,’’ wrote
Robert Johann (1963). When reflected upon and put into metaphorical language, experi-
ence becomes poetry and drama. When expressed as rhythm in motion and sound, it is
music and dance. When experience is given shape, texture, color and ‘‘tenderness from
long-looking,’’ it becomes art (Roethke in O’Leary 2008).
Experience is the fixture, the point of reference in the study of spirituality and in the
practice of spiritual direction (Schneiders 1989). It is the point of convergence between the
disciplines of theology, philosophy, psychology and phenomenology. The human experi-
ence of God in all its dimensions, whether that experience is presence or seeming absence,
forms the content of spiritual direction (Edwards 1983).

J. Evans (&)
Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

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Every Christian spirituality, writes Buckley, posits its own beliefs about the nature of
God, of human beings and the pathway that leads to human-divine union (1989). These
beliefs are strained through the sieve of history, tradition, culture and personal religious
experience to form the values of a particular spirituality and the creative expressions of
those values as expressed in various spiritual practices (1989). The articulation of beliefs
about God and about human nature gives shape to the spiritual pathway through tran-
scendence or immanence—whether God is perceived as beyond, ‘‘Other’’ (Guardini 1962)
or experienced as close and intimate to human beings. ‘‘Christianity stresses both: the
transcendent God is also the God who can be found within and around us, discernible in
both a dramatic religious experience and in the simple, quiet love of a child for his or her
parent’’ (Nelson 2009).
What is the aim and content of spiritual direction? In plainest terms, the aim of spiritual
direction is to give people an opportunity to talk about their experience of God (Bir-
mingham and Connolly 1994). It is not psycho-therapy or pastoral counseling, though
healing can take place. It is not the friendship of two people who have mutual interests in
spirituality, though they may encourage each other by their sharing. It is not an advice
bureau, though spiritual directors can assist people in the discernment process.
In its essence, spiritual direction or accompaniment is neither coaching nor mentoring.
While personal growth, affirmation, decision-making, support, and challenge may be
genuine benefits from spiritual direction, the primary benefit ought to be the ability to
articulate one’s experience of God to someone who will listen, heed and understand. All
else is incidental.
This is not to say that the experiences of healing, affirmation, clarity, friendship, wis-
dom, compassion and empathy will not occur during spiritual direction. Nevertheless, as
Birmingham and Connolly state unequivocally: ‘‘The principal issue in the conversations
between the directee and the director is the directee’s experience. This is the case at the
beginning of direction…and it remains true through the course of direction. The directee’s
experience changes, but it remains the principal issue’’ (Birmingham and Connolly 1987).
The purpose remains the same: to help individuals grow in a relationship with God.

Spiritual Direction in the Western Christian Tradition

As praxis, spiritual direction has a long history within western Christianity. The earliest
practitioners of spiritual direction seem to be the reclusive monks and nuns of Syrian and
Egyptian deserts of the third to fifth centuries (Ruffing 2011). They fled the known world
and its corruption to seek God (Mayers 1996). Disciples would hear of spiritual masters
and approach them for teachings. The model of spiritual direction was master–disciple. A
disciple would be given a saying to gnaw upon in solitude. The Abba did not train or
discuss with the disciple, but encouraged the disciple to do battle with his own demons and
those he would encounter on his spiritual pathway (Waaijman and Vried 2002).
Monks who left Western France for the Scottish Highlands, nearby islands (Wight,
Iona) and the Irish coasts lived alone but developed another type of spiritual direction
relationship not based on master–disciple as in the communities of cenobites in the desert,
but on friendship (Sellner 1994). This relationship of peers or of soul-friends was called by
the Celtic Christians, the anamchara. The anamcharas shared a great depth and love in a
relationship rooted in God. It would survive separation of distance and time (1994).
Meanwhile, from the sixth century onwards, the development of spirituality on the
European continent was tied closely to the growth of monasteries (Ruffing 2011; Healey

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1999). Monks gathered in communities such as the Benedictines, where they lived a life of
prayer and work, offering hospitality to pilgrims, reciting the psalms throughout the day
and night, reflecting on readings from scripture and the fathers of the Church,1 copying
Latin manuscripts, preserving sacred texts and creatively illuminating manuscripts. The
Abbot or Abbess of the monastery was the community leader (2009) giving instruction to
community members in spiritual conferences, as in the case of Bernard of Clairvaux, the
eleventh century Cistercian reformer who gave sermons to the community based on
scripture, focusing particularly on love and humility. These conferences, along with the
Rule, would form the basis of spiritual guidance for the monks (Pennington 1986).
The profoundly new consciousness in the late sixteenth century that the individual soul
was as a place of God’s indwelling was apparent in the writings of Teresa of Avila 1515–1582
(de Certeau 1992). The Spanish Carmelite mystic and reformer presents her fundamental idea
of an ‘‘interior castle’’ as the soul’s dwelling place for God (Healey 1999) and describes her
own prayer experiences in the various ‘‘rooms’’ of the castle. Teresa invites readers to enter
the castle of their own souls and there to find God (Welch 1982). She relied heavily upon John
of the Cross, a young Carmelite priest (1542–1591), to guide her communities of nuns in the
ways of contemplation. His poems, commentaries and teachings about the dark night and the
graces of infused contemplation reached religious men and women as well as educated laity in
Spain and beyond (Nelson 2009). Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross offer another model of
spiritual direction: the mystical guide (Kavanaugh and Rodriguez 1991; Holt 1993).
Similarly, mystical guidance was offered in France in the early years of the seventeenth
century at the Paris home of Madame Barbe Acarie. As early as 1601, Madame Acarie had
obtained a copy of Teresa of Avila’s writings translated into French, and her salon became
the venue for animated conversations about everything from mystical states to clerical and
monastic reform (Buckley 1989). Reformers, pastors and mystical guides were often
among her guests: Pierre de Bérulle, François de Sales, Vincent de Paul, and the Carthusian
monk Benedict of Canfield, to name a few (Buckley 1989; Healey 1999).
During the seventeenth century, spiritual direction was carried on through letters,
conferences, and publications, for example, from François de Sales to directees (Wright
and Power 1988). Generally speaking, the dominant model of direction from the thirteenth
through the twentieth centuries was the confessor/penitent model. The practice of private
confession with specific penances designated for various offenses was introduced by Celtic
Christians (Holt 1993). This development had a lasting impact on the tradition of spiritual
guidance when Irish monks began missionary journeys to Europe from the eighth through
the thirteenth centuries. The practice of private confession has continued well into this
century, but is referred to as a sacrament of healing and reconciliation.2 The confessional
box was the usual venue for both absolution from sin and advice about the growth in one’s
spiritual life (Ruffing 2011) with one notable exception.
That exception is due to the new paradigm for spiritual direction introduced by Ignatius
of Loyola (1491–1556). His innovative understanding of the role of a spiritual director was
a radical departure from other models of spiritual direction. Ignatius introduced a model

1
The first stage is lectio (reading), reading the Word of God, slowly and reflectively. The second stage is
meditatio (reflection), thinking about the text, ruminating upon it. The third stage is oratio (prayer response)
in which our hearts speak to God. The final stage is contemplation (rest), resting in the Word of God (http://
ocarm.org/en/content/lectio/what-lectio-divina).
2
Taking a more pastoral approach since the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church now
refers to the confession and remission of sin as a sacrament of healing and reconciliation. Through the
ministry of the Church, Christ the Good Shepherd seeks out the lost and heals the sick (Miller and Benedict
2011).

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that was scientific, presaging the approach taken by twentieth century phenomenologists:
the spiritual director must stand like ‘‘the pointer of a scale in equilibrium’’ (Ganss 1991).
Instead of giving counsel, imposing penances and/or requiring complete adherence to his
directives, whether they were rational or not,3 Ignatius listened to his directees. He advised
spiritual directors to do the same: be as objective as possible in order to facilitate God’s
communication with the directee: ‘‘Accordingly, the one giving the Exercises ought not to
lean or incline in either direction but rather, while standing by like the pointer of a scale at
equilibrium, to allow the Creator to deal immediately with the creature and the creation
with its Creator and Lord’’ (Annotation 15, Ganss 1991).
With the promulgation of Vatican II’s decrees on the renewal of life and worship in the
Catholic Church in the 1960’s, the new emphasis on scripture and spirituality prompted a
re-vitalization of the Ignatian retreat concept. Scripture, something quite unfamiliar to most
Catholics, became the ‘‘normative guide to religious experience’’ making an appeal to the
whole person—emotions, imagination as well as intellect (Ganss in Stanley 1967). Jesuits
in North America who had already begun a Program to Adapt the Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius to contemporary life (Institute 1962) encouraged scholars to re-design the Spiri-
tual Exercises, incorporating insights from biblical scholarship (1967). The current model
of spiritual direction is facilitative as described by the Center for Religious Development in
1994: ‘‘Spiritual direction facilitates the explication of the relationship [between a directee
and God] and …its development’’ (Birmingham and Connolly 1994).

A Practice Rooted in Theology

Spiritual direction is a ‘‘concrete process’’ under the rubric of spirituality (Schneiders


1989), and its foundation is theology. Those who practice spiritual direction based upon the
Ignatian Spiritual Exercises believe that God has a relationship with human beings and
desires to relate personally with them whether they know it or not (Birmingham and
Connolly 1994). In their approach to the training of spiritual directors the staff at the
Center for Religious Development articulated their theological presuppositions. First,
spiritual direction ‘‘neither originates nor gives shape to a person’s spiritual development.’’
Second, before someone comes for spiritual direction, God has already been acting in a
person’s life. Third, spiritual direction will benefit a person who, aware of God’s work in
his/her life, wants a ‘‘more explicit relationship with God’’ (1994). Fourth, returning to the
inspiration of Ignatius, spiritual direction presupposes a desire on the part of the directee
for a personal relationship with God (Puhl 1951).
Desire is a key factor in developing a relationship with God. The Spiritual Exercises
propose that directees express their desires to God: ‘‘I will ask God our Lord for what I
want and desire’’ (1951). Spiritual direction is predicated upon the belief that God com-
municates God’s self in all life experiences (Edwards 1983; Palmes 1996).4 This same God
desires a relationship of mutuality. This view of spiritual direction presupposes that prayer

3
‘‘There are directors who, when they undertake the care of a soul, totally turn it upside down in order to
form it in their mode. This is not my approach’’ (Mother Madeleine of St. Joseph, seventeenth century
founding prioress of Carmelite women in Paris) (Thompson-Uberuaga 1989).
4
Palmes writes that God is found in nature, the signs of the times, in one’s brothers and sisters, in oneself,
in the events of daily life, the social situation and the structures of society, in the delicate traces of the Spirit
when one recognizes his Providential care. But God is also present in the injustice and violence of society.
God is found in the cry of the poor. If this were not so, God would be an imaginary God, and not incarnate in
the midst of the world (Palmes 1996).

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is a dialogue in which ‘‘God meets me where I am’’ (Moore 2012), and that God is present
to the human person in his or her openness to the infinite (Rahner 1997).
Writing on Ignatian spirituality is another source of theological grounding. The website
of Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario, Canada describes the cornerstones of Ignatian
spirituality:
• God is always present; God has created and is still creating
• God is inviting us to share in the act of creating by means of our choices
• We are called to seek and find God in all things
• We need to be people who are discerning. Discernment is both the grace and a skill and
is learned by practice.
• God is healer, comforter, counselor; God is compassionate and gentle.
Retreat directors at Loyola House describe their role: ‘‘We know God alone is the guide.
We are called to give people a safe place where they can tell their story, be listened to and
come to recognize how God was present in their past and present with them now. We are
privileged to be companions on the journey’’ (www.loyolahouse.com/about/beliefs.html
Accessed 12/20/2013).5

An Inter-disciplinary Approach

Sandra Schneiders traces the ancestry of spiritual direction to the discipline of theology,
under the pre-Vatican II category, ‘‘spiritual theology’’ (1989). As a concrete process,
spiritual direction falls within the ambit of spirituality. Spirituality is related to the lived
experience of the faith. It is a discipline that reflects the exigencies of post-modern civi-
lization: interdisciplinary, inter-religious, cross-cultural (1989). Schneiders advocates
taking an interdisciplinary approach to the study of spirituality because it deals with
mystical experience, a reality that crosses many borders (1989). By extension, an inter-
disciplinary approach to the practice of spiritual is warranted and appropriate.
In developing their facilitative model of spiritual direction, Jesuits and their colleagues
at the Center for Religious Development wanted to create an ‘‘innovative and pastoral
enterprise.’’ They wanted participants to be free in talking about their experiences of God,
and not inhibited by the use of academic language or distracted from their primary
experiences by intellectualizing. ‘‘God Acting’’ became the term for ‘‘religious experi-
ence’’ (1994). As the practice of facilitative spiritual direction has developed in the last
fifty years, concepts and terminology have been borrowed from other disciplines—
philosophy, psychology and the phenomenology of religious experience to keep the
practice of spiritual direction a pastoral ministry. The points of convergence between
aspects of these disciplines and the practice of spiritual direction will be explored now.

Footnote 4 continued
‘‘Y también está presente en la injusticia y en la violencia; no solo en las cosas bellas y en las historias
edificantes. También se halla en ‘el grito de los pobres’ y en las situaciones de oppression y en el abanono y
en la muerte. Si ‘nuestro Dios’ nos llevase a desentendernos de la situación de las masas marginadas o de
los problemas del mundo, serı́a un Dios imaginado, pero no el que se encarnó en mido de su pueblo.’’
5
Other websites and apps are available: www.ignatianspirituality.com; www.pray-as-you-go.org (with
apps) (http://www.loyolahouse.com/about/beliefs.html).

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Philosophy: Developing Contemplative Awareness

Taking the directee’s relationship with God as paramount, trainers ask the question: What
will facilitate this relationship? The result has been an approach which grounds the directee
in the reality in which he/she exists. The way to access the revelation inherent in this reality
is through the lens of the senses. Contemplative awareness has its roots in an understanding
of the act of contemplation. Pieper describes contemplation not as a work, but as a passive
receptivity. To contemplate ‘‘means to open one’s eyes receptively to whatever offers itself
to one’s vision, and the things seen enter into us, so to speak, without calling for any effort
or strain on our part to possess them’’ (Pieper 1964). In philosophical terms, what is seen
and understood is not through the power of discursive logic or ratio, but through intel-
lectus, the ‘‘simple vision to which truth offers itself like a landscape to the eye.’’ Phi-
losophers have long regarded ratio as the human element in knowledge, and intellectus as
beyond human knowledge—as a received knowledge, that is not the result of one’s work
(1964).
Experienced spiritual directors, directees and trainees are daily immersed in the divine
reality, but often don’t pay attention to it (Waaijman and Vried 2002). So, the issue
becomes: How does one see with new eyes? How does one see as the mystics see? How
can directees develop contemplative awareness? (Birmingham and Connolly 1994).
Burghardt’s seminal article, ‘‘Contemplation, A Long, Loving Look at the Real’’ (1989)
introduces directees to the importance of noticing in a relaxed, contemplative way. This
attitude develops when directors and directees pay attention, notice, recognize, look
closely, linger, gaze, grow more aware (Conroy 1995). Contemplative awareness happens.
It cannot be forced or it becomes tense observation. Contemplative awareness is simply
‘‘looking’’ (Pieper 1964).
A contemplative attitude opens the possibility of greater awareness of God’s hidden
presence. It leads to wonder (Bowen 2005b). It creates amazement, ‘‘the first step on the
mystical path’’ (Sölle in Gomez 2005).6 To contemplate is to open one’s eyes receptively
to whatever offers itself to our vision and the things seen enter into us so to speak, without
calling for any effort or strain on our part to possess them (1964: 9). Noticing does very
little. It waits for the other to reveal itself (Birmingham and Connolly 1994: 43). What is
‘‘seen’’ is significant in direction because it elicits feeling reactions. These feelings and
their expression to someone who is trustworthy open the door to the inner life of the
directee (Birmingham and Connolly 1994). They provide what Lonergan calls the ‘‘data of
interiority’’ (1976).
The contemplative attitude, beginning with the process of noticing, develops a nuanced
awareness within a directee. Textures, shades, fragrances, glances, tastes are no longer the
same. Now capacities of the spirit, the senses articulate the invisible reality of divine
presence. In paying attention to their experiences in nature, for example, directees may
begin to pay attention to God (1994). Directees begin to taste, to enjoy, and then to
understand something of the invitation to relationship with God (Keating 1995).
We now consider the interface with psychology, focusing only on Rogerian client-
centered therapy because it adapts two practices from phenomenology: epochē, the brac-
keting of personal judgments and empathy, the practice of understanding something or
someone from within the experience.

6
‘‘El primer paso en el camino mı́stico es el asombro.’’

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An Interface with Psychotherapy: Client-Centered Therapy

Certain aspects of client-centered therapy as developed by Carl Rogers have been suc-
cessfully appropriated by spiritual directors for use during interviews. The aim of client-
centered therapy is ‘‘to provide the patient with an ambiance in which he feels at ease,
permits his feelings to emerge, comes to distinguish them from other inner events’’ as he/
she engages in therapy sessions (Lonergan 1976). In English’s view, the non-directive
technique developed by Rogers is particularly helpful to spiritual directors (English 1979).
Establishing trust is essential to the work of spiritual direction and to client-centered
therapy (1979). In setting out the three conditions for optimum growth of clients within in a
therapy relationship, Rogers (in Kirschenbaum and Henderson 1989) determined that the
first essential element was a ‘‘genuineness, realness, or congruence’’ by the therapist with
the client such that he or she would not hide behind a professional façade, but rather
maintain a transparent presence with the client. Feelings and attitudes flowing within the
therapist at that moment, at gut level would be present to the therapist’s awareness and
would be expressed to the client. This creates congruence.
The second and third facilitative aspects—unconditional positive regard and empathic
understanding are expressed through the caring acceptance of the client, by withholding
judgments and listening from within to the experience of the client so that the therapist
gains access to the inner world of the client.
How do these three conditions for therapists’ behavior interface with the process of
spiritual direction? Psychological counseling assists a client to avail of his/her personal
resources for ‘‘self-understanding in order to alter his/her self-concept, attitudes, and self-
directed behavior’’ (Kirschenbaum and Henderson 1989). Spiritual direction helps people
discover how God is working in their lives and how to deepen their relationship with God
(Barry 1986).
Congruence or ‘‘close matching’’ between what is being experienced at the gut level by
the therapist, present in awareness, and expressed to the client, is helpful in therapy, but not
in spiritual direction. This is because the director in the facilitative model is to act as ‘‘a
balance at equilibrium’’ (1951). While congruence may ultimately assist in the therapy
process, it may block the relationship with God by putting the director between the directee
and God.
Empathic understanding is a type of engaged listening that originates in phenomenol-
ogy. Both of these elements—unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding of
Rogers have been appropriated by spiritual directors. Both are helpful, but as Guenther
points out ‘‘unrestrained empathy can lead us to appropriation of the other person’s
experience, by posture and by facial expression, if not by words’’ (Guenther 1992), or
possibly ‘‘to confusing or crossing over boundaries’’ (Sheehan 1999).

Interface with Phenomenology

In the last fifty years, religion and psychology have been linked meaningfully in approach
and in the appropriation of terminology and practices, as we have seen in client-centered
therapy. Phenomenology, which is the process of observing and describing a thing, event,
or happening, has become an important tool in understanding of religion, myths, rituals,
and the study of religious experience. As a form of philosophy, phenomenology emerged
from radical doubt about the scientific starting points of the nineteenth century—ratio-
nalism, causality-thinking, deductive reasoning (Waaijman and Vried 2002). Today,

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phenomenological method is applied in many spheres and used in such disparate disci-
plines as dance (Sheets 1966) business, e.g., the measurement of customer satisfaction in
care facilities (Stone 2009), psychotherapy, studies on prayer (Richards 1991), education
(Zur and Eisikovits 2011), and religion (Cox 2010).
Essentially, phenomenology is about experience itself. The beginning, middle and end
of phenomenological method is the experience. As Waaijman expresses it, ‘‘The credo of
phenomenology is: back to concreteness, the thing itself as it presents itself’’ (2002). I
suggest that there is a significant interface between the practice of spiritual direction and
phenomenological method that has not been sufficiently explored. This interface exists in
process, practices, and content: first, in the process used by Ignatius of Loyola as a
practitioner in observing and analyzing his own religious experience; second, in the
appropriation by spiritual directors of the practices of epochē and empathy, and third, in the
phenomenological analysis of the content of spiritual direction, which is religious
experience.
A key figure associated with phenomenology is Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), a
mathematician whose insight into the need for ‘‘appropriate access to phenomena
themselves’’ deeply influenced contemporary philosophy. Husserl’s singular aim was to
return to the ‘‘thing’’ in its pure state, as it presents itself. He wanted to develop a
method by which no phenomena, imaginary or real, could be falsified (Delfgaauw 1969).
However, long before Edmund Husserl chose to become a philosopher, he had a very
significant religious experience. Recalling his youth Husserl wrote to Arnold Metzger in
1919: ‘‘…the decisive influences which lead me from mathematics to phenomenology as
my vocation, may lie in overpowering religious experiences and complete transforma-
tions. Indeed, the powerful effect of the New Testament on a 23-year-old gave rise to an
impetus to discover the way to God and to a true life through a rigorous philosophical
inquiry’’ (Wright 2005).
Experience is the starting point for phenomenology and spiritual direction, and it is the
first point of convergence between Edmund Husserl and Ignatius of Loyola. As a result of
their religious experiences, both men were impelled to begin observing, noting and ana-
lyzing their interior experiences. Their methodologies were essentially the same: to
observe, to listen, to remain objective, to be a ‘‘balance at equilibrium,’’ as Ignatius
expressed it. This process of observation, reflection and analysis is evident in the life
experiences of Ignatius of Loyola and shows him to be a prototype of a modern
phenomenologist.
As Ignatius lay recovering from war wounds sustained in Pamplona in 1521, he made
meticulous notes on his interior reactions to reading romantic stories or the life of Christ by
Ludolph of Saxony (Holt 1993). His reflections formed the basis of his understanding of
discernment of spirits of consolation or desolation, where one feels pulled toward God and
the things of God, or repelled by them (Ganss 1991). Ignatius left Loyola in 1522 full of
zeal for the Lord and his work, quite unaware of how he would live out his dedication to
God.
Ignatius’ vocation deepened while he stayed in Manresa from March 1522-February
1523. ‘‘He was being led gently toward something he himself did not know,’’ wrote Nadal
of Ignatius (1991). At Manresa his experiences alternated between consolation and deso-
lation. While living like a pilgrim, begging for food and sleeping in a cave, he taught
catechism to children, nursed in the hospital. All the while he experienced doubts, scruples
and temptations. Then it seemed to him that ‘‘God treated him at this time just as a
schoolmaster treats a child whom he is teaching’’ (1991:28). Ignatius gained clarity and
understanding. His reflections became the Spiritual Exercises. ‘‘He himself, questioned by

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Câmara as to how he drew them up, replied that ‘he had not composed the Exercises all at
once, but that when he noticed some things in his soul and found them useful, he thought
they might also be useful to others, and so he put them in writing’ and thus he traced such
experiences all the way back to Loyola’’ (1991). Ultimately, he was the founder of the
Society of Jesus.
Not only in his careful note taking and analysis did Ignatius of Loyola use phenome-
nological methodology, but also in the description of the role of ‘‘one giving the Exer-
cises,’’ a spiritual director. Again, he is a prototype of a modern phenomenologist, ensuring
that the person listening to the religious experience of a directee displays complete
‘‘indifference’’ to what is said by the directee, acting like a balance at equilibrium, neither
leaning one way or the other. His aim was objectivity so that the Creator would be free to
encounter the creature and the creature the Creator (1951).
This leads us to a second point of convergence between phenomenology and spiritual
direction: performing epochē and practicing empathy in spiritual direction, and in the
absence of these, the necessity of supervision.
The practice of epochē is the first step in the study of religion. All personal theories and
views about religious truth or experience need to be suspended or put into brackets. This
method assists an observer to avoid value judgments (Cox 1992). However, phenome-
nology has definite limitations, which are seemingly addressed by the practice of epochē.
The integrity [truth] of a description from the subject, as noted by the researcher may be
compromised by the researcher or observer’s biases and pre-conceptions. To this end, a
researcher must practice epochē, a ‘‘self-reflexive attitude which recognizes that the [he/
she] begins from certain perspectives and dispositions’’ (Lonergan n.d.). Particularly in
work with other cultures in the phenomenology of religion, the act of suspending one’s
personal and academic judgments is key for a researcher and crucial for the integrity of the
data and the validity of subsequent interpretations (Cox 2010). So it is that epochē must be
practiced and maintained throughout the process of research and analysis of data.
This is equally true of the spiritual director. As the primary concern of the spiritual
director is the directee’s experience, the director is ‘‘to stand off and be patient and
objective’’ (1979). The spiritual director needs to be ‘‘indifferent’’ in the Ignatian sense,
interiorly free in order to be a ‘‘balance at equilibrium without leaning to either side’’
(1979). Directors strive to hear someone’s story and ‘‘encourage the exploration of his or
her experience.’’ They listen in an ‘‘enabling way’’ (Ruffing 2011) for the directee to
appropriate the experience. Directees are encouraged to express their feelings to God as a
means of deepening the relationship to God. Suppressed and painful emotions of grief,
fear, anger create distance between the directee and God. The spiritual director invites the
directee to become transparent to God and allow God to comfort him/her (Barry 1987).
Phenomenology is above all, a method of working that is focused on the internal
examination of experience. It analyzes a text from within the experience, always careful to
practice epochē and empathy (2002). While Husserl intended that his phenomenological
approach be scientific, he realized that the results of the analysis of consciousness were
based on the subjectivity of the analyzer. Husserl and Edith Stein worked together to
develop the category of empathetic understanding of another’s consciousness called Ein-
fühlung. As the analysis of one’s consciousness needed to be correlated with the con-
sciousness of others, empathetic understanding would enable the process to become
objectified through what Husserl called ‘‘intersubjectivity.’’
The essence of empathy (Einfühlung) is allowing ourselves to enter into the experience
of another. It is ‘‘a form of cognition by which I, in my own understanding, discover the
other as an alter ego, put myself in her shoes and sense how she experiences reality in her

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own unique way’’ (2002). In ordinary terms, empathy means being touched by that
experience and having ourselves turned around by it. As an inner perception of another’s
consciousness, empathy is different from knowing someone’s situation and feeling con-
cern. Empathy does not keep a distance. While knowledge stands before the other, empathy
enters into the experience of the other. ‘‘Knowledge is blind, empty, and restless, always
pointing back to some kind of experienced seen act,’’ writes ‘‘Stein (1989), and the
experience back to which this knowledge points is called empathy’’.
In the case of spiritual direction the listening a director does is not just an act of
attending to words; ‘‘it is participation in the directee’s attempt to describe his or her
experience so that the directee and director can contemplate it together’’ (Birmingham and
Connolly 1987). It is more than empathic listening. During the conversation the director
may become aware that there is a Third Party in the room (Yungblut in Waaijman and
Vried 2002). For both director and directee God is present in the relationship between the
two. This is the experience of standing on holy ground (Barry 1991).
Spiritual directors need to listen into themselves, into the other and into God in the
manner of Etty Hillesum: ‘‘My life is a perpetual listening inside of myself, of others, of
God. And when I say that I listen within, in reality it is rather God in me is listening. It is
most essential and profound listening in me to the essence and depth of the other. God
listening to God’’ (Hillesum and Noble 1995).7
Kenosis is the attitude of self-emptying that is akin to empathy in the phenomenological
model. It implies emptying and receptivity (Mensch 2005). The word kenosis comes from
the Greek and is used in the hymn of Paul to the Philippians in which he describes the
salvific emptying of Jesus, who ‘‘emptied’’ himself ‘‘and made himself nothing’’ (2005).
Holy listening requires the gift of ‘‘disinterested attention’’ (Guenther 1992). Genuine
listening requires self-emptying and letting go (Sheehan 1999).
There are occasions when a spiritual director might think, ‘‘I know another’s con-
sciousness’’ and this will trigger an internal shift within the director and the recognition of
one’s own experience. ‘‘But this is not empathy. It is not kenotic’’ (2002). This is especially
true when listening to the history and present context of someone who is not from the
director’s own cultural or socio-economic background (Sheehan 1999). ‘‘Listening is a
form of empathy or interpathy (cross-cultural empathy) in which the person enters into the
experience of the other’’ (1999).
A significant part of the spiritual direction process is supervision. It is the means by
which a spiritual director can maintain objectivity (epochē) and empathy with directees.
The director tries to listen empathically to the narrative from within the experience of the
directee. He/she is careful to maintain an unbiased attitude and to monitor his/her own
feeling responses. But there are times when this does not happen. ‘‘Spiritual directors’
unresolved issues, such as denied or repressed feelings, can prevent them from helping
directees to look deeply at their life circumstances and savor fully their religious experi-
ence’’ (Conroy 1995). To maintain balance and integrity within the spiritual direction
relationship, a spiritual director needs regular supervision. ‘‘Self-awareness, responsible
freedom, developing creativity, and capacity for intimacy’’ are four gifts of supervision
(Lommasson 2005). Spiritual directors cannot ignore their own reactions to directees’
narratives. These reactions may be emotional, physical or mental. They range from

7
‘‘De fait, ma vie n’est qu’une perpétuelle écoute ‘au-dedans’ de moi-même, des autres, de Dieu. Et quand
je dis qu j’écoute ‘au-dedans,’ en réalité c’est plutôt Dieu en moi qui est à l’écoute. ce qu’il y a de plus
essentiel et de plus profond en moi écoute l’essence et la profondeur de l’autre. Dieu écoute Dieu,’’ (Etty
Hillesum).

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boredom, fear, disgust, sadness, joy, to frustration. Physical sensations include back ache,
drowsiness, exhaustion, sexual arousal (Ruffing 2000). Distractions during the directee’s
narrative may be thoughts of one’s own experience, of other directees, open-ended
interpretations of a directee’s narrative (Langer 2005; Bowen 2005a; Hamilton-Poore
2005).
There may be reactions to persons of other cultures, social class, gender, geographic
region or ethnic group (Molina and Haney 2005), to marginalized persons, the disabled,
sick, aged, foreign, or afflicted (Phillips 2005). Spiritual directors can also be greatly
moved by or even jealous of the consoling experience of a directee (Conroy 1995). The
director may ‘‘be attracted by the directee’s experience; he may at the same time, find
himself, his own values, and his own practice of prayer under scrutiny’’ (Connolly 1980).
Supervision provides a means to process the inner experiences of the spiritual director
during a direction session (Sheehan 1999). Conroy suggests that the director look for
emotional reactions, consider the reasons for these, then note the results, related to self-
knowledge (1995). Behaviors of a spiritual director may indicate their inability to come to
terms with particular directees and their experiences. Overlooking and forgetting are
conscious or subconscious ways of putting the directee and his/her issues aside. Gener-
alizing substitutes contact with a directee’s experience with an idea about the experience,
and this too creates distance in the director–directee (Birmingham and Connolly 1994).
Birmingham and Connolly remind directors that supervision ‘‘is a serious attempt to
help directors to move from knowledge about spiritual direction to being absorbed in the
experience of directees who are trying to be absorbed in God’’ (1994). Rightly understood
and accepted, the process of supervision fosters an inner watchfulness so that the director
acts with respect and compassion toward the directee as the directee unfolds the story of
her/his experience.
As a descriptive practice, spiritual direction shares similarities with phenomenology.
Already we have seen aspects of epochē and empathy incorporated into the practice and
consciousness of spiritual directors. This third point of convergence is the religious
experience of the directee. In spiritual direction, the process of ‘‘unpacking’’ is paramount
so that the directee can savor his/her experience of God and appropriate it. In the excerpt
below from a spiritual direction session, we see the explication of the experience of
gardening. What follows is an informal analysis of the interchange between the directee
and the director.
Directee: I find that gardening is a wholesome release for me on the weekends, but I’ve
been wanting to learn from you how to pray the Scriptures.
Director: Uh-hunh. Tell me more about that sense of release.
Directee: Well, it just feels good to get my hands into the soil and pull up the weeds and
make it possible for seeds to sprout.
Director: Yes, it can be very relaxing.
Directee: Totally, and then after an hour or two of messing around in the back yard, I
find that I can be more patient with the kids; things don’t get on my nerves as much.
Almost as if I’m a better person.
Director: Tell me about that.
Directee: [Pause.] Maybe I’m finally believing, after all these years of being so uptight
and trying to be perfect, that God is tending me, and weeding me, and actually rejoicing
in the signs of new life in me.
Director: So, what’s it like to feel that God is tending you? (Scofield 2005:56–57).

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The spiritual director picks up the directee’s phrase ‘‘God is tending me’’ and asks for a
description—‘‘What’s it like to feel that God is tending you?’’ Rather than move away
from the experience by saying something like, ‘‘That’s wonderful.’’ The spiritual director
stays with the image. In doing so, the director opens the door for the directee to feel what
‘‘tending’’ suggests—security, care, love. That question also ensures that the directee stays
in the immediacy of the experience, not moving away to ideas about the experience.
The director wants to help the directees ‘‘unpack the experience’’ and encourages the
use of descriptive concrete language to name their experiences of God (Scofield 2005).
‘‘Tell me about that’’ elicits a response from the directee, put in ‘‘real’’ terms. He/she
names and describes how she experiences God’s action in his/her life—as a gardener. Then
the director asks the directee to ‘‘unpack the experience’’ by expressing in affective terms
what it is like to be ‘‘tended and weeded.’’ As retreat director Karen Doyle, SSJ stated:
‘‘We help people to name the experience; we evoke what it’s like. And this gives clarity
about how and where God is active’’ (St. Joseph’s Retreat Center, Cohasset, Massachu-
setts, November 13, 2013).
The use of a phenomenological model may be of assistance in culling more from the
interview—naming and describing phenomena, observing interrelationships and processes,
identifying beliefs, modes of consciousness and affective states (Pellauer 1983): identi-
fying the object, which in this case is God, and how the object appeared to the subject, the
directee. A simple framework is provided with steps outlined by Cox (1992) and questions
posed by Alston (1992) on the reportage of mystical experience:

1. Description of the phenomena This an excerpt from a conversation between a spiritual director
and a directee
2. Naming the phenomena The phenomenon is an experience of God as tending the directee
like a garden
3. Describe interrelationships and The subject (directee) describes the relationship between
processes gardening and ‘‘wholesome release’’ that is felt: ‘‘feels good to
get my hands into the soil, pull up weeds, make it possible for
seeds to sprout’’
The subject describes the result of the gardening activity: he/she
is more patient with children at home
The subject is someone ‘‘uptight and trying to be perfect’’ for
many years
4. Identifying beliefs The subject believes that God is my gardener. God gives signs of
new life
5. What is it like to be directly aware of The subject experiences herself, ‘‘almost as if I’m a better
God? person’’; ‘‘I’m finally believing’’
6. What is the subject’s affective state? More patient, more relaxed: ‘‘things don’t get on my nerves so
much’’
7. What attributes or actions of God can God is active in the directee’s life. God’s activity brings new life.
be attributed to God? God enjoys the new life the directee is experiencing
8. How is God present in this God is present as doing: tending, weeding, rejoicing in signs of
phenomenon as Being or as Doing? new life in the directee

In the analysis of the interchange immediately following the excerpt, the attention is on both
the director and the directee. What the framework supplies is more information on the per-
ceptions of the directee about him/herself and God in the experience. Both types of analysis are
important and complementary and both highlight the directee’s experience. Experience is the
starting and ending point of spiritual direction and phenomenological method.

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Conclusion

The centerpiece of this study is religious experience. Spiritual direction is a practice aimed
to assist persons to discuss their experience of God in order to facilitate the growth of their
relationship with God. In the Western tradition of Christianity, there have been numerous
models of spiritual direction. However, the model developed by Ignatius of Loyola is most
consonant with the goal of enabling people to converse about their experience of God.
Spiritual direction is a process rooted in spirituality with theology as its foundation. Its
practice is predicated upon the belief that God seeks relationships with people, God acts in
people’s lives, God can be found in all things, and that human beings have an intrinsic
openness to transcendence.
Spiritual direction is an inter-disciplinary practice that interfaces with the disciplines of
philosophy, in contemplative listening, and in psychology with the client-centered
approach of Carl Rogers. There are significant points of convergence between phenome-
nology and spiritual direction: first, in the approach of Ignatius of Loyola to his religious
experience, as a prototype of a phenomenologist; second, in the appropriation by spiritual
directors of the concepts of epochē and empathy in the practice of spiritual direction and
supervision; third, in the analysis of a spiritual direction interview, the use of phenome-
nological methodology yields significant insights into the subject and object that may not
have been revealed otherwise.

Acknowledgments This research was funded by a grant from the Louisville Institute’s Pastoral Study
program in 2012. I am grateful for the support of the Louisville Institute in giving me this opportunity.

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