FROM time to time in the course of our discussion we have had occasion to refer to the priest as the director of souls; it may therefore be useful to conclude our study by a short discussion of the responsibility of the parish priest in this most important matter. An adequate discussion would require a book to itself, and will not be attempted here; we shall confine ourselves to a few suggestions in barest outline.

    In our first chapter we found that the differentia of the Christian life is that it is a participation in the life of God, given by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ. If this is so, it follows that an essential part of the ministry of every priest is the guidance of the souls committed to him in their response to the Holy Spirit and their willed participation in that life. Spiritual direction is not the close preserve of a few experts, but an essential part of the responsibility of every priest with a cure of souls.

    A priest is a man sent forth to bring men home to the Heart of God, his primary mission is therefore one of conversion; but where that mission has been accomplished, he has to face the further responsibilities of training and guiding souls in the spiritual life. This guidance will take different forms in different cases, but every soul needs it: it is not enough merely to exhort our people to be good, to say their prayers and frequent the sacraments, they look to us for guidance in these matters, and such guidance is of the essence of the pastoral office.

    In a general congregation the only direct incentive to the Christian life which many people get comes to them through sermons, whence also they obtain their guidance in spiritual things; so that if the Sunday sermon is barren of spirituality,  as it not infrequently is,” the hungry sheep look up and are not fed.”

    We are not here concerned with Homiletics, but we must point out that what most people rightly look for in our sermons is not fine preaching, topical fireworks or intellectual” essays, but, as they say,” something to think about during the week,” i.e. spiritual guidance. The preacher’s business is not to be sensational, nor should he be content to” say a few words” about nothing in particular—his true aim is to teach his people the Faith and how to live by it as simply and plainly as he can.

    Confirmation classes and addresses to parochial guilds afford unique opportunities not only for explaining the Faith, but also for continuous training in the spiritual life, and we can hardly give them too much care and thought. It is to be feared that some priests regard these things as rather troublesome disturbances of the normal parochial round, but they are rather the means whereby we may train our young people in real devotion to our Lord; the seed-beds of the Church, to which we should give the best that is in us.

    The inner circle of the more devout is a part of his congregation which the priest often thinks can take care of itself, but he should not forget that in the midst of His ministry to the multitude our Lord gave Himself to the intensive training of the Twelve upon whom he founded His Church. We shall be wise, therefore, to give Lent and other courses for the more devout which shall provide them with real training in the more fervent and costing devotion to our Lord for which they should be ready. The reason why the devout often become so trying is that they do not receive the guidance which they need, and so, instead of growing in self-oblation, they merely become self-absorbed. The inner circle should be the spiritual power-house of the parish, not a clique of somewhat pharisaical elite.

    The means of spiritual guidance which we have so far considered are of great importance, but it is in his dealings with, individuals that the priest will be called upon to guide souls most intimately. Individual work is difficult and exacting, but it is impossible to exaggerate its vital importance, and it is here especially that the priest can be the guide and father of his people if he really gives himself to them.

    In his visiting the priest finds that his advice in spiritual matters is constantly sought, often by most unexpected people, and it is his privilege to deal with a variety of doubts and difficulties. He may feel sometimes that this does not lead anywhere, but if he always gives of his best he may find that his words go farther than he, thinks. We must not depreciate the value of this sort of ministry, for it is not only of use in itself, but it not infrequently leads on to more detailed and continuous guidance.

    Besides those who come to him for occasional help in spiritual matters, there are also those who are more particularly his children, whose confessor or director he is, and we must now endeavour to make clear the difference between these two offices.

    As confessor the priest’s relationship to his penitent is that of spiritual physician and, so far as counsel is concerned, his business is to deal with the matter of the confession and prescribe remedies. As director, he has an even graver responsibility, for he has to take cognisance not only of the matter of a confession, or even several confessions, but of the whole spiritual life of the soul, and show it the way in which it should go in prayer, mortification, the practice of virtue—indeed, in every department of its life.

Direction is the art of guiding souls so that they shall respond most readily to their graces. ... It implies a settled relationship between director and directed, not merely by way of giving and seeking advice, which would still leave open the private judgment of the one directed, but rather a relationship resulting from prayer and careful search in which the soul has found the “guide of souls” upon whom it feels it can depend. Being sure of this, the soul has adopted the avowed intention of obeying the counsels of that friend.

Gilbert Shaw, Some Notes on Terminology, pp. 122-3.

    It is a matter of the greatest importance to a soul seeking perfection that it should be directed in its way by a wise priest learned in the spiritual life, but, unfortunately, such a priest is not very easy to find; we have, indeed, many confessors, but few directors. The parish priest must not expect to direct all his penitents as a matter of course, for some of them have perfectly good reasons for going elsewhere, and it is of the greatest moment that a soul should be directed by the priest whom it believes to be the right one for itself; but he should be capable of directing ordinary souls rightly, and should know the limits of his own capacity well enough to send those whose way he does not understand to a more expert priest. It is vital that there should be experts in spiritual direction who can deal with exceptional souls, but the majority of souls are not exceptional, and should be able to find what they need at home if their clergy would take the science of the spiritual life seriously and study to become directors of souls.

    It is a mistake to think that long interviews of direction and rigorous cross-examinations are constantly necessary, in this work. Once the director has visualised the state of the soul and decided upon its way, it is not generally necessary to do more than deal with questions and difficulties as they arise, except at long intervals or when a change occurs in the spiritual state of the soul; most of the director’s work can be done at occasional interviews or, in case of necessity, even by correspondence. Some directors exact a great deal of spiritual account-keeping from the souls who commit themselves to them, and require from them an obedience similar to that which a Religious gives to his Superior, but such requirements are an abuse of the director’s office which is most cramping to the soul. The relationship between director and directed is that of father and child, not superior and subject, a distinction which should always be borne in mind.

    The guidance of souls is not easy; rather it is an exceedingly delicate task, and makes great demands on the character of the priest himself: we must therefore attempt to visualise some of the chief qualities which the director should seek to acquire.

    The priest’s whole ability to guide souls depends upon his being a man of God. Spiritual guidance can only be undertaken by one who is himself humbly seeking to live with and for God: a worldly priest, though he may be popular, is incapable of this work; nor is it sufficient merely to have a good knowledge of human nature nor to be well up in the latest theories of psychology. The direction of souls is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the priest is simply the human medium through whom the Spirit works; the director’s primary qualification is not anything of his own, but fidelity to the love and will of God. His work is so delicate and difficult that he may well despair of doing it at all in his own power, and he needs to live in constant dependence upon the grace of his ordination, and to correspond to that grace by constant prayer, holding himself and his spiritual children within the Divine will.

   As regards himself, the director should aim at a very real and           fundamental detachment from all things and people in themselves. Instances are common, far too common, of priests who, often with the best possible intentions, attach souls to themselves rather than to God, with disastrous consequences when the inevitable break comes. The relationship between confessor and penitent or director and directed is so intimate, being concerned with the deepest things of the spirit, that it creates a real bond between them, and when that bond is truly spiritual and in God, it is right and good; the difficulty is that it is apt to become, on the penitent’s side at least, something merely emotional. This can be counteracted by real detachment on the part of the priest, who should also train his child in this fundamental austerity.

    Further, the director needs to be disciplined with regard to his personal ascendancy over the soul he directs. The exercise of spiritual authority demands the greatest humility, and all temptations to substitute one’s own will for that of the soul must be strenuously resisted. The director’s business is to direct, not to bully; he has to develop the soul’s personality, not to subject it to his own; he will need to beware of directing too much and of subjecting souls under his care to vows and rules which cramp their initiative.

    Again, the director needs a reverence for the Holy Ghost so great that he never puts himself in the way of the Divine guidance. When one sees a soul opening out and developing, it is so easy to attribute that result to one’s own careful direction, instead of seeing in it the work of grace; then, perhaps, one increases one’s counsel with a view to making the soul what one wants it to become oneself, without reference to the will of God; but one has no right to do that. It is no part of the director’s business to make all his spiritual children contemplatives, or to force all of them to meditate in his particular way or to follow his particular rule of life; it is for him to visualise the Spirit’s leading and will with regard to the individual, and to show that soul how best to correspond with that leading and will, quite irrespective of his own plans and prescriptions.

    Sometimes with advancing souls the director’s best course is simply to watch and make occasional suggestions, for with them the Holy Ghost often does His work more or less directly; in such cases the director must be content to remain in the background until he is needed.

    The director should never forget that he is the father of the spiritual children whom God gives him to cherish and guide. We have considered the fundamental detachment which must be if the relationship between father and child, is to be in God, but that detachment must not issue in a hard coldness, but in a spiritual love, which is purged, indeed, of selfishness and emotion, but warm with Charity.

    The director’s love for his spiritual children is shown first of all in the compassion of his Master—that compassion which is a real entering into the soul’s life and sufferings, the understanding which comes by Charity. It is essential to the soul that it should be understood by its director, and such understanding can only come by compassion.

    Compassion should produce patience. People, even holy ones, are often extremely trying, fussy and exacting, but if the director is to be of any use at all, he must be patient, and he can be so if his compassion and understanding are real.

    These qualities should be accompanied by zeal for the salvation of the souls committed to us. Patience alone may develop into laissez-faire, zeal alone may become feverish, but together they produce a balance of soul characteristic of the true guide of souls.

    Charity must be accompanied and illuminated by knowledge. The soul is a delicate organism, and ignorance and clumsiness, even when well-intentioned, may do a great deal of damage.

    The director needs to fit himself for his task by careful study. He is not a -psycho-analyst, and some knowledge of psychology, though useful, is not an adequate equipment. The priest treats souls on the spiritual, not the psychic level, and what is important for him is an adequate knowledge of the four closely related branches of theology—dogmatic, moral, ascetical and mystical. Of these we would stress the importance of the third, which should be studied not in little modern books, but in the works of the proved masters. If one is to train souls in the spiritual life, one must know what that life is and how souls may cultivate and grow in it, and this means careful study of ascetical theology. But this knowledge must not be merely theoretical—there must also be practical experience. The director should not be a sign-post, which points out the road without travelling along it; his most valuable knowledge of the spiritual life comes through his own attempts and failures, and he cannot guide others in a life which he is not living himself.

    Lastly, the director needs wisdom, which is firstly the gift of God and secondly the result of knowledge. Wisdom consists essentially of two elements; an instinctive understanding of what is right for the soul one is directing, and that instinctive quality called tact (or more technically though less graphically” discretion “) in dealing with it.

    Finally, one should pray much for one’s spiritual children. Nothing is more beautiful in the letters of that great spiritual director, Abbot Marmion, than the way in which he says over and over again je prie beaucoup pour vous (“I am praying for you all the time”) . Those words may well be the motto of the guide of souls, whatever form his guidance may take, for it is by prayer, even more than by counsel, that he can bring and keep them close to the Heart of God.

xcxxcxxc  F ” “ This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990....x....  ’ “”.