Imagine if a spiritual director were to do the following:
-Convince the directee to continually steal time from their contemplative practice, and even subtly doubt the worth of such a practice at all.
-Fan the flames of dead-end, obsessive thought.
-Rationalize habits that are not life-giving.
-Cast doubt on one’s ability to find and follow their vocation.
-Cast doubt on one’s basic goodness or the fact that one is loved.
It is laughable to even imagine, right? We would not put up with such talk even for a short time from a spiritual director.
We do, too often though, put up with such talk from our mind’s inner chatter.
Put another way: It is possible that, sometimes, we may be our own worst spiritual director.
Of course, it does not have to be that way. Simply seeing such chatter drains it of its power, and then we can ask for the grace to act like a fine spiritual director… one who can self-empty, see compassionately, and gently welcome the directee into the graced mystery of their life.
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