Sometimes you just need a simple, practical way to explore your choices.  For that, we turn to our Methodist friends.  18th century preacher and theologian John Wesley—founder of Methodism—believed we needed to take four factors into consideration when navigating choices in the Christian life:  scripture, tradition, reason and experience. I like the visual nature of this process. It looks and feels stable. While Wesley himself probably never referred to this as a process or even as a “quadrilateral” (which is... Read more

Not everyone wants or needs a step-by-step process for spiritual discernment. But for those who do, you can do no better than a process based on St. Ignatius’ principles for the discernment of spirits. Many books on discernment will give you outlines that look something like this: Stage One: The Preparation Begin in silent prayer. When you think from your deepest, truest self, what is your burning desire in life right now?  (Keep it concrete, and be as specific as... Read more

Many people come to spiritual direction wanting to better understand an experience of God from their past. Perhaps it was something that happened in prayer or worship. Or it might have been an experience in daily life that opened them to a deeper sense of being loved by God. A spiritual director is trained to help you remember times when you felt close to God or felt “at one with the universe.” If we stay with the memory and allow... Read more