"Introduction to Spiritual Direction" Course Starting Saturday 13 June 2015

What topics does the course cover?

This introductory course covers three key areas:

- The first steps in the spiritual life: what are these steps, how should we understand them and how might we best accompany others in these stages. In particular, how can we discern what is helpful to support spiritual growth through understanding the person and the action of the grace of God.

- What is covered by the term spiritual direction: what it is and is not, the traditions and different schools of spiritual direction and how they have evolved, the levels and types of discernment and how the needs of the individual change as they grow spiritually.

Where does spiritual accompaniment and spiritual direction fit in: responsibility for our own spiritual life and the invitation to support others on the journey, how this serves growth and what, from a practical perspective, do we need to keep in mind.

This course will draw on the teachings of the Desert Monks and those of three doctors of the Church who wrote extensively on this topic - St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila and St Therese of Lisieux.

Please note that this introductory course lays the groundwork for the follow up course on Spiritual Direction which we hope to run later in 2015 and attendance is therefore a pre requisite for anyone wanting to do the follow up course.

Where and when is the course taking place?

The course will take place at St Mary of the Angels, Moorhouse Road, Bayswater, London, W2 5DJ on Saturday 13th, 20th and 27th June from 10am - 4:30pm.

The course will be taught by Jean Khoury, a theologian who has studied and taught Spiritual Life in the Church for over 20 years. As well as lecturing world-wide on spiritual life and meditation, Jean is the author of several books, articles and studies on spiritual life and the founder of the School of Mary, a 3 level formation in spiritual life (www.amorvincit.com). Jean obtained a degree in Philosophy and a Masters in Spiritual Theology from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (France) and holds a Licence in Theology from the Teresianum (Rome). He is currently completing his PhD in Spiritual Theology at the Angelicum (Rome) with Monsignor François-Marie Léthel. Jean is based in the Archdiocese of Westminster, London, UK.

Costs

Fees: £75.00 for the full course. £50 deposit to book a place before the course starts with remaining balance to be paid on 13th June.

Any pre requisites?

In order to get the most from the course, participants will need to have a reasonable understanding of the goal and stages of the spiritual life. As such, the course is open to:

Participants who have already attended the School of Mary course on "Introduction to the Spiritual Life".

Participants whose background has given them a basic appreciation of the key concepts needed. If you are in this latter group, we will ask you to send us a short (1-2 paragraph) summary of what you would like to get out of the course and any previous experience you may have in accompanying others in the spiritual life so that we can make sure the course is a good fit for what you need.

How do I sign up?

As the venue can only accommodate 25 and we expect demand for this course to be high, participants will need to register and pay in advance:

Participants who have already attended the School of Mary course on "Introduction to the Spiritual Life" should register for this course by emailing schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com and we will be in touch to provide details on how to pay.

Those who would like to attend but who have not completed the "Introduction to the Spiritual Life" course should email schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com with a short (1-2 paragraph) summary of what you would like to get out of the course and any previous experience accompanying others in the spiritual life so that we can make sure the course is a good fit for what you need, answer any specific questions you may have and, if appropriate, register you for the course.

Contact : Should you have any questions about the course then please contact schoolofmarylondon@gmail.com or call Fiona on 07702 37 17 57.

21: Defining Spiritual Theology 2

Let us continue to define “Spiritual Theology" (ST).

1- ST takes care of our Spiritual Life

The object of Spiritual Theology: our Spiritual Life. It is meant to take care of our spiritual life, its growth, its healthy and steady state.

2- ST manages a relationship between Christ and each one of us

Our Spiritual Life is the life of God in us, Jesus' life in us. This life is generated by the combined action of two persons: Jesus and each one of us.

This is why it is important to know what Jesus wants to achieve, how He works, what he wants. And it is as important to know 'how a human being can answer to His Call', reply to him, act, react, in a synergetic, harmonious, way.

3- ST's goal is to make our Spiritual Life grow

Spiritual Theology has various goals. Final, remote goals, and daily goals. It is only by achieving the daily goals that we can reach the final ones.

3.1 Final Goals: 1- Union with Jesus, 2- Fulness of Love

Spiritual life has two main goals:

1- Reaching first the top of the Mountain of the Union with Jesus Christ, God.

2- Reaching, with Jesus, and in Jesus, the bottom of the Mountain, serving our brothers and sisters reaching the fullness of love.

3.2 Intermediate Goal: each day, achieving 'the daily measure'

The intermediate Goal is each step we make, in order to reach the final goal. We have three measures in spiritual life: the act and the day (you may add 'the week').

- The act, any act, we make during the day should be synergetic. It should be done from Jesus, with Jesus, achieving Jesus.

- The real measure though is the day. “Today's effort is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). I chose to translate here: “effort” and not "trouble" or other words. Showing that there is a measure of correspondence to the Holy Spirit we are called to achieve everyday.

No doubt the lectio divina, and the lectio divina well made, helps us achieve that goal, of adding every day one more synergetic act. Jesus states it: you can't do anything without me (John 15). He invites us to imitate Him by contemplating the will of God and then by his Grace putting it into practice. Lectio divina is completed by the Prayer of the heart. Like sun and water nourish the tree, Lectio divina and prayer of the heart, respectively, nourish us.

It is by accomplishing the “intermediate goal”, the measure of the effort of each day, that our Spiritual Life grows in us and that we can reach the final goals, otherwise, we are not growing properly.

4- Recognising the stages of Spiritual Life

When a mother has a baby, she starts to go, on a regular basis to a paediatrician, because she needs to know if her baby is healthy, doing well, growing … She doesn't always have all the sufficient knowledge in order to take care of her baby.

In the meantime, the Paediatrician has enough knowledge and experience in order to be able to do this checkup. He/she measures and weighs the baby and performs all sorts of checkups in order to be sure that the baby is growing. The Spiritual Master does almost exactly the same work. The faithful goes to him, in order to show his/her inner life and practices. Like the mother goes with her baby.

4.1 Knowing the stages

As the Doctor knows the 'normal' stages of growth of the baby, the 'Spiritual Master' knows them as well. Without knowing the stages and what characterises them, the Doctor cannot ensure the check up, cannot ensure that the baby is healthy and that all is fine. It is the same for the 'Spiritual Master'. It is part of his/her training to know the stages of spiritual life. This comes with study and learning.

4.2 Recognising the stages

One thing is knowing the stages, learning them (scientifically, theoretically), and the other is being able to re-cognise them. This comes with a lot of experience and discernment. The future Master has to become first a Disciple, for various years, in order to receive the discernment. Otherwise it is simply 'hell' (a great confusion). This is a very delicate art, and mistakes could be done very easily.

The “eyes” of the future Master, 'the capacity to see', and then 'the capacity to discern' have to grow. This can only happen under a training with another Master. It is the transmission of the living Tradition of Spiritual Masters.

Reflections

I think, that these simple lines, help define the framework of Spiritual Life and Spiritual Theology.

Wondering too much out of that framework can create confusion and loss of time and energy.

After reading these few lines, you can easily conclude that this "science" (Spiritual Theology) is the queen of all sciences, or better said: if you still consider 'Spiritual Theology' as a branch of Theology (it is your right to do so), wouldn't you consider that this Branch (ST) is not only a fundamental branch, but the Queen of all Branches of Theology? Anyway, the most useful one, the one that most of the faithful claim, wait for, and hardly receive in their lifetime. Look around.

Wouldn't you then wonder : where did it go in the big forest of Theology?

Why Theology divorced from Spiritual Theology? (I thought in the Catholic Church we didn't have divorce !!!!!) The actual Pope laments this divorce and is trying his best to mend it!

Why Spiritual Theology today is a 'half-dead' body lying on the road? (see the Parable of the Good  Samaritan Luke 10:30)

Ok, I will stop lamenting, and get up early, and work, work, work, in this Field - with the Help and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is My CREED.

16b: The "eyes" of the Guide

Yesterday I was in a hospital, following the case of a friend. His doctor couldn't understand why he had fevers, going up and down. After trying antibiotics for 10 days, thinking of an infection, seeing that the fever is still there the doctor deduced it can be that. He then had a guess, and ordered a Scan. The scan revealed a stone between the kidney and the bladder. The stone measured exactly 5,5 mm. We know now exactly where it is and what was happening. Quite urgently my friend will have to go through a surgery to extract that calculus, avoiding possible complications.

We know as well that the development of Neuroscience (and many other sciences) boomed these last 20 years because of the development of new generations of scanning machines (the fMRI).

Few years ago (without these machines) we wouldn't have been able to diagnose (at least so rapidly) many diseases.

What is a scanning machine? It is a machine, that allows us to delve in the human body, and see, with greater detail and precision, what the naked eye can't see.

_________________

Well that fact made me think a lot about Spiritual Theology. All what it addresses, is directly non-visible: the soul (mind and will, memory, imagination, inner senses) and the spirit (the upper part of the soul). The "Master in Spiritual Life" is like a Doctor : he needs to diagnose the state of the person he sees. And in order to diagnose, he needs to see inside.

Only few saints had that special gift of seeing in the heart. Would this mean only very few people can offer Spiritual Direction? Only few people can teach Spiritual Theology? “a blind man cannot guide another blind one, they will both fall” (Luke 6:39) says Jesus.

Without these "scanning machines" and "powerful analysis means" they have today available Doctors were sort of “blind”. They had to use other means in order to “see” (in fact: “guess” or “deduce by more visible symptoms" and "gathering knowledge fro the greatest number of cases”).

How does a human being access his own soul and the soul of the others? The same for the spirit (this highest part of the soul that enters in the direct contact with God, and is, by definition, super-conscious) how can we access it?

For sure one cannot dismiss the help of the Holy Spirit in order to help the Spiritual Master, to remind him, to open his eyes, in order to “see” what is happening. But the Holy Spirit doesn't work in a miraculous magical way. He supposes the presence of our effort, that is: our correspondence to the Grace of our state and call: our study, our experience and our discernment received through spiritual direction.

Do you see what I mean? In order to build, in the “Spiritual Master”, these eyes that will help him/her see what is happening in this mysterious, mystical, world of "spiritual life", the Holy Spirit is asking him to do three things, to grow in the practice of them, and to excel in them:

1- experience: delving in the experience of God, and not just reading or studying. And growing in the experience of God.

2- science: learning about the experience of God by reading, studying, and receiving the grace of understanding what he/she reads and the grace of recognising (connecting what he reads/knows with what he experiences). And on top of all that, studying and doing research in that area.

3- discernment: becoming first a disciple, seeking “spiritual direction”; receiving the needed discernment. Humility is necessary, and listening to God who speaks, teaches and corrects through the spiritual director.

As we see, this is a combined effort, not just a Grace given from Above. This combined effort between the Holy Spirit and the person called to that service, for years, will end up by building "new eyes" that will help him recognise, see, analyse and measure what is happening in the soul of his brothers and sisters.

So we have the call, received, to follow the steps of the “spiritual masters”, starting to go down in humility, experience, science, recognition, discernment, growing in all these elements, for years. This will generate like new eyes. The eyes of the Guide.

This requires an effort. Studying requires an effort. Holiness requires an effort. This is how the salt remains salty (see Mt 5).