Candlelight

Susan S. Phillips

Description

Offers an intimate view of spiritual direction through written re-enactments of actual spiritual direction sessions.
The experiential practice is accompanied by theoretical and theological foundations guiding it. The book includes the stories of nine men and women whose stories illustrate how the journey of Christian discipleship is helped by spiritual direction.

The Spiritual Directors International Series – This book is part of a special series produced by Morehouse Publishing in cooperation with Spiritual Directors International (SDI), a global network of some 6,000 spiritual directors and members.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Pastoral Resources
• Christian Ministry
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Church Publishing Incorporated
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780819223913
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Candlelight
"Susan Phillips's thoughtful, listening intelligence incandesces in this account of her practice of spiritual direction. The process comes to vivid life in her personal narratives of sessions with directees in God's presence. I was moved by the way Susan's insights grew in relationship with those she met with over months and years. I felt holiness creeping into my own life."—Luci Shaw, author, Breath for the Bones: Imagination, Art, & Spirit and Writer in Residence, Regent College
" Reading Candlelight is like watching spiritual direction sessions through a two-way mirror while simultaneously privy to the thoughts and feelings of the author. Invaluable for people doing spiritual direction or contemplating it. Provides discerning insights into the difference in form and focus between psychotherapy and spiritual direction. Likely to be absorbing reading for Jungian or transpersonal psychologists."—Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of Close to the Bone and Crossing to Avalon
"Some form of spiritual direction is to be found in all the world religions and in many tribal religions as well, but it is only recently that this function has come to be widely recognized in modern societies. As we grope toward understanding what spiritual direction might mean to us we badly need to know how it actually works today. Here Susan Phillips's book offers a signal contribution. She gives us not a 'how to' book but illustrations of spiritual direction in practice as no other book I know of does. By following the experiences of those she has directed over time and through deepening insight we get an understanding that no set of generalizations can provide. This moving book deserves close attention by all those concerned with retrieving the rich possibilities of spiritual direction today."—Robert N. Bellah, Professor of Sociology, emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of Habits of the Heart
"Susan Phillips doesn't just talk about spiritual direction, she allows us to see her engaged in this ministry, providing a much needed glimpse inside the spiritual direction room, inside the lives of real directees, inside the mind and heart of a gifted spiritual director."—Elizabeth Liebert, author of The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women , and Professor of Spiritual Life, San Francisco Theological Seminary
"While some books on spiritual direction emphasize theology and theory and others are more practical and applied, Susan Phillips offers us something quite unique. We are invited to peek into sacred spaces, absorb poignant stories and watch the candle shed light and sketch shadows. Instead of the harshness of pragmatic, prescriptive and programmatic approaches to spirituality, one is left with a deep and gentle sense that God is here with us."—Rod Wilson, President and Professor of Counselling and Psychology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada
"More than mere flickers of insight, in this fine book Susan Phillips sheds the light of much wisdom that will encourage and inspire both the givers and the receivers of spiritual direction."—Richard Mouw, President and Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary
"I have waited for just this book for a long time. Susan Phillips's Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction is a balanced and biblically faithful portrait of the journey into the place where thoughtful spiritual direction can happen. She avoids the entrapments of personal and interpersonal influences in which powerful leaders dominate others around them. Phillips understands that dangerous terrain and draws the reader toward the healthy place where our human stories can be shared and told in safety toward the goal of edification. I recommend this book for pastors, counselors and for all who want to understand ways to explore their spiritual natures."—Earl Palmer, senior pastor, University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, and author of Love Has Its Reasons and Trusting God
" Illuminating is the precisely accurate word for this brilliant evocation of spiritual direction in action. If I were permitted only one book on spiritual direction, this would be it."—Eugene H. Peterson, author of The Message and Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.
Candlelight
Candlelight
ILLUMINATING
THE ART OF
SPIRITUAL
DIRECTION

S USAN S . P HILLIPS
Copyright © 2008 by Susan S. Phillips
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
"The Avowal" by Denise Levertov, from OBLIQUE PRAYERS, copyright © 1984 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen. Copyright © 1992 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Morehouse Publishing, 4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17105
Morehouse Publishing, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.
Cover art: Detail of an eighteenth-century icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child in the private chapel of the Archbishop of Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery; photo by Hieromonk Justin Sinaites.
Cover design by Brenda Klinger
Back cover photo by Claudia Marseille

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Phillips, Susan (Susan S.).
Candlelight : illuminating spiritual direction / by Susan S. Phillips.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8192-2297-8 (pbk.); ISBN 978-0-8192-2391-3(ebook)
1. Spiritual direction—Christianity. 2. Spiritual direction—Christianity—Case studies.
I. Title.
BV5053.P49 2008
253.5'3—dc22
2007048925
With gratitude to the women and men who
have made God's grace visible to me, as we
met together in the candle's light
Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding and Seeing Spiritual Direction
Gift, Art, Practice, and Profession
Tradition and Contemporary Expression
Seeing Spiritual Direction
The Shape of the Book
PART ONE. BEGINNING
1. Shall We Dance?
First Encounters
Hearts' Desires
2. Held in the Current: Grant
3. Remembering the Pasture: Leah
4. A Face in the Mirror: David
5. Forgetting to Ask "Why?": Melissa
6. Straining to Listen: Charles
7. Fully Alive: Jim
8. God's Embrace: Carl
9. Crossing the Road: John
10. "Is This a Little Strange for You, Sweetie?": Ruth
PART TWO. JOURNEYING
11. Encountering Suffering and Love
Journeying and Rooted
Suffering and Its Questions
Who Shall Bear the Blame?
Recognizing and Receiving God's Love
12. Commissioned: Leah
13. Stepping Stones: Carl
14. Bearing Witness to What Faith Allows: Ruth
15. Rainbows—Welcome and Unwelcome: Grant
16. Open Hands: Charles
17. The God You Believe In: Jim
18. Praying over Jerusalem: John
19. The Tree That You Are: Melissa
20. "It's Not about Me": David
PART THREE. FRUITION
21. Planted by the Waters
Flourishing
Abiding in Grace
Fruit of the Spirit
22. "To Whom Shall I Go?": Grant
23. Deep Struggle, Deep Calling: Jim
24. The Greatest of These Is Love: John
25. Afloat in a Coracle: David
26. A Broader Gift: Leah
27. Releasing the Parking Brake: Charles
28. The Spirit's Dwelling Place: Ruth
29. Fruit in Lent: Carl
30. "But I Trusted in Your Steadfast Love": Melissa
Conclusion: God's Holy Habitation
Dwelling and Engrafted
Thriving in Community
Prayer and Worship
Seeing through a Glass Darkly
Preface


B enedictine monk David Steindl-Rast declared that "the very act of lighting the candle is prayer." 1 He described lighting the candle in solitude as he prayed, and also the experience of lighting the candle in a church procession. When someone comes to me for spiritual direction, I light a candle and say, "We light the candle as a reminder that God is here with us." It is a prayer akin to the spontaneous candle-lighting of compassionate humanity and the liturgical lighting of candles for worship. The flame represents human yearning toward that which transcends and ignites our hearts.
We are a candle-lighting people. There are candlelight vigils whenever people gather in solidarity with others' suffering. When New York City and Washington, D.C., were attacked in 2001, people around the world gathered in public squares, lit candles, and prayed. When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia in the late winter of 2004, people around the world lit candles expressing compassion. When students die in attacks on schools, people gather at other schools, and light candles. Amnesty International's symbol is a lighted candle encircled with barbed wire, indicating the light of hope and others' care smuggled into the darkness of a person's imprisonment.
A directee has told me about the candles he has seen in Eastern European churches, Holocaust memorials, his own church and home, and in my office. He is certain "It's the same flame."
As we pray at the beginning of the spiritual direction hour, the flame wavers, grabs hold and runs down the wick to the surface of the wax where it wallows briefly, engaging our hope, and then gains strength as it remounts the wick. The flame remains through our time together, reminding us of God's presence as we open our hearts and minds. The candle forms a corona of light, and we are gently held in it. It also casts shadows, bringing to mind