Yes, another book review. 🙂 I just finished Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction by Randy Reese and Keith Anderson. Excellent! One of the things I love about it is that it comes at discipleship (called Spiritual Mentoring here) from the perspective of … dead people! Yes, they pick the brains of great men and women of God who have gone before us: Julian of Norwich, Augustine, Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyala. I’m simply including some exerpts here to whet your appetite. Definitely worth reading!
“Spirituality is practical: everything can be seen as a container of the holy. In fact, the everyday containers of time and place become holy as God’s presence fills them. Spirituality is, therefore, inherently and intensely sacramental. We understand that God’s presence is not confined to that which is sacred; rather God’s grace is mediated through the ordinary. It is experiential rather than abstract. As an old Russian proverb says, “Every day can be a messenger of God.” (p. 26)
Amen! Does this sound familiar? The Sacredness of the Mundane perhaps?
And on motivation for discipling:
“If there is a desire to instruct and tutor another in the ways you have found useful, perhaps it is time to think again. Mentoring is not about telling. It is about listening-to the Holy Spirit and to the life of another.” (p. 28)
Listening. All about learning to listen.
“Pay attention for the presence of God in everything … spiritual mentoring is a relationship that helps us pay attention to our stories and to recognize there the already present action of God.” (p. 40)
On sharing our stories, our pain:
“When he wrote his book on ministry, Henri Nouwen called it The Wounded Healer because he understood that only those whose own hearts have been wounded by suffering of life can be authentically available to others, it is through telling our own histories of pain and joy that we can serve the needs of others, which is ministry.” (p. 88)
On our spiritual life:
“A commonly held view today equates our spirituality with our devotional life … If I “feel” God in my prayer life or if I “hear” God in almost auditory experience, if I “see” God in a mystical or charismatic vision, then my spiritual life is good, strong, or effective. The universal teaching of spirituality over all the centuries speaks in unison: God speaks to us in many ways; spirituality is learning to pay attention to the presence of God in everything. Spiritual listening is never limited to the activities of worship, daily devotions, or spiritual exercises. It echoes in unexpected ways every hour of the day or night.” (p. 95)
And
“Prayer is pilgrimage. The closer I get to the goal, the farther away I might feel. The more holy I become, the less holy I know myself to be. The more experienced I am in my ministry, the less competent I may feel to lead others to spiritual growth.” (p. 118)
On necessary, brutal self-examination:
“[Ignatius] understood that we are capable of ‘quenching the spirit’ through ‘inordinate attachments,’ that is, distractions, digressions, habits, or sins that block our progress or keep us from knowing the will of God…Though this sort of self-examination is not a popular discipline today, a sober moral and spiritual inventory of the heart is essential to the spiritual journey. We stop and ponder our own persistence at disobedience.” (p. 136)
On the reflective life:
“Ignatian methods may be difficult for many in our frantically busy world, but reflective living is surely not impossible for any of us. Even as we wait at the traffic light, can we not lift a prayer? As we wait in line at the bank, can we not think about the moments of our day? As we drive everywhere, can we turn off the radio, tapes and CDs and listen reflectively to the events of our day? Certainly the discipline of creating time for reflection is a lifeline for spiritual health. Without times in quiet, thoughtful reflection, our spirituality remains shallow, anemic and misguided.” (p. 145)
On identifying one’s own voice in history:
“Your own voice will reflect the holy history of your own life and its experiences…It is an unfortunate conspiracy of adults and painful experiences that stifle a child.” (p. 156)
Good stuff!