Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction

The book candlelight explores the idea of seeking spiritual direction and offers real-life insight to the person seeking spiritual guidance. Dr. Philips describes the spirituality as the process whereby personal knowledge can be said to be seminal work. She indicates that "even scientists are shaped by their knowledge and the appraisals of science are protected by their commitment to truth, accountability, practices, and communities" (Phillips, 2008, p. 06). So for both the person seeking direction and the director to achieve the spiritual direction, there must be an aspect of listening to the inner self. The ability to search the heart and look for answers from within is essential in any spiritual growth. Dr. Phillips narrates her personal experiences and those of nine other characters whom she has interacted with as a spiritual listener. According to Dr. Phillips, "spiritual direction is essential in bringing the God's truth and love to the world. The grace cultivated is brought into this world, transforming relationships, people, aspiring charity, motivating worship and helping to repair the broken world" (Phillips, 2008, p. 242).

Humans are the most sacred, fragile and mysterious creatures created by God. This is because, unlike all of the God's creations, only humans have been created in his image and have been given the power to understand what is right and what is forbidden. The effort to seek God in our midst takes humans to a depth where they need each other in the spiritual journey. Listening to each other and encouraging one another becomes vital in human life. As Dr. Philips puts it, "seeking spiritual direction is an act of courage and hope. For the people who come into my place of work for the first time it shows that they have felt sufficient desire to know God better and that is why they have come" (Phillips, 2008, p. 24). The other reason why humans are unique, fragile and mysterious is that in creating humans as vessels of God's will into this world, he gave them a divine responsibility of serving and worshiping him. This responsibility according to Dr. Philips, we must ensure that we have an encounter with God, which does not mean we have to forfeit our human nature, but instead, it says that we have to be honest, just as Christ did. Honest is the ability to serve and pray to God from the depths of our hearts.

It is imperative to realize that when we listen to someone fully, we render them services that are of great importance as a person has a chance to open their hearts and tell their story. Seeking spirituality has been demonstrated by Dr. Philips in his encounter with Grant. It is through the act of listening to him that Philips realizes that Grant has a lot of questions regarding the religion and the existence of God. At first, Grant appears composed and tries to keep the meeting more professional and official. However, as they meet more frequently, he opens up and tells her a story that changes makes Dr. Philips understand him better. By grant speaking his heart out, he can express his grief due to the loss of his brother whom he was very close. The new revelation explains the root of his pain and solitude, as Dr. Philip had noticed, he always appeared sad and lonely (Phillips, 2008, p. 30). By opening up to her, Grant was able to let go the emotions and bitterness that he felt towards God. Through the help of the spiritual director, he was able to acknowledge and recognize the presence of God. Towards the end of the sessions, Grant learned that at the foot of the cross is where humans should take their burdens and seek forgiveness. This story stresses the importance of offering a listening ear and the numerous advantages attributed to being able to listen to someone problem. For it is through the active listening and guidance that Grant was able to see God's everlasting love for humanity (Phillips, 2008, p. 33).

Spiritual listening provides humans with a chance to reconnect with each other and most importantly with God. To truly listen allows a person to reaffirm his or her devotion to God and offers encouragement to the person being directed to spirituality. When Susan heard David's story, she experienced the presence of God where she indicated that "I felt a movement, like cool wind past me. My view of things was translucent, not dark and cumulus. And then in a patch, I saw God" (Phillips, 2008, p. 57). Sometimes, just by offering a person the listening ear, we can learn things that we previously did not know and which are vital to our spiritual growth. In Dr. Phillips first encounter, her first client offers her a challenge in that she is more familiar and well equipped in matters of spirituality than her. However, regardless of this superiority she takes it as an opportunity to learn some of the things that she did not know, and it gave her a chance to know what she is expected to offer and do it confidently (Phillips, 2008, p. 23). Also, in the encounter with Grant, we find that through active listening; she is able to feel God's love in our life. She adopts a new strategy of coping with troubles and learns how people express their frustrations differently whenever they feel like God has abandoned them. By listening to people, we acquire the gift of being able to see some of the infinite variety of God's presence in human life (Phillips, 2008, p. 63).

The way we do the listening is fundamental; this is because the way we listen brings forth what is alive and real in one another. An example of such an instance is amplified by a conversation between Susan and Pastor David. Both are aware of public scrutiny and what is expected of them by the other people, but this does not make them any less susceptible to human failure and the tendency to question their ability to live up to expectation. In the conversation, Dr. Philips learns that David occasionally speaks sternly of himself, and at times it creates a closed up system where he puts words into Gods' mouth (Phillips, 2008, p. 54). However, now that David is talking to someone who understands how public scrutiny and expectation can affect an individual's life, he is able to relax and express his emotions and fears. In this way, David opens his heart and expresses his frustration and anger towards God, for letting him do most of the work while he doesn't seem to offer him help. As David tells his story, not as a man of God, but as a human seeking spiritual direction, he reaches to the point of total emotional breakdown and cries freely expressing vulnerability and honesty in his spiritual quest. This shows that when an individual has a person who can listen to them without judgment, they can discover a new capacity for their insight and awareness. And it is then that such a person remembers whom they are. They learn to trust in God, and instead of complaining because of the challenges presented to them, they can embrace them and pray to God for the strength to overcome these obstacles.

Listening is a creative force that has to be decoded to get the message from God. The gift of listening can be acquired through training or by observation and learning. However, we often need a person who is gifted in listening to be able to explain to us what particular signs mean in our lives. Most often when we pray, God answers our prayers in a more indirect manner which if not keen enough, a person of faith might miss the crucial message from God. However, through the help of a listener, such spiritual fulfillment becomes possible, and the answers that we seek can be explained to us. Example of such an instance is in the case of Charles, who is persistent in his prayers in search of a mate. Charles is unable to listen to Gods answers regarding his prayers, but Susan understands that he just needs to be patient and work towards finding the woman of his dreams. This story shows that listening has to be accompanied by a high level of creativity to understand Gods message. It also supports the fact to listen; one has to do it with their hearts, and their whole beings. A good listener is the one that combines the theological approach with the daily life experiences. Susan demonstrates this by her advice to Charles which combines involving God in his plans and desires, yet at the same time working hard to find the woman of his dreams.

Listening can be said to be the ability to listen to our heart. It is because the heart stands for the center of our being which truly binds us together. Time and time again we should and must be able to return to our hearts and look for the answers that we seek. Mostly, due to public scrutiny and meeting what is expected of us, we put up an image of an ideal person. What the society expects us to be. But our real identity is somewhere deep inside our hearts, that is where our uniqueness lies buried and cannot be changed, therefore it is of paramount necessity to find the strength that we need to overcome our obstacles from deep within us. An example of this is portrayed in the story of Melisa, despite the fact that she is in a wheelchair, and has a back problem that bothers her, she is continuously praying and refuses to blame God for her troubles. Instead, she opts to find strength from within her heart and place her trust in God.

The heart is that place where I am not only most intimately myself, but most intimately united with all. Every heart desires to be loved, and it also harbors the love for God and other people. It is normal for humans craves for deep connections with each other, regardless of the sophisticated human nature, love is essential to all of us, and we are often lost and lonely whenever we fail to feel love or give love. In the story, we learn of carl a learned guy who prefers to be in silence. This behavior confuses Susan who thinks he might be having low regard for her teachings, but later she learns that Carl is lonely and frustrated due to the inability to find love. The other story that Susan tells to stress the importance of love and intimacy originating from the heart is the case of John, who describes Billy as a man who died while hoping to find love. He expresses his regrets that he died while he had not found it (Phillips, 2008, p. 82). Therefore, spiritual completeness should ensure that the heart is satisfied and that it can feel loved and give love in return. This feeling creates deep connections and promotes unity with all people and God. For the scripture tells us that God is love and that he lives in hearts that love one another.Redemptive listening is the act of listening to God in such a way that life and love are brought into existence. To find the lost people, one has to engage them, listen to them and pull them back to the ways of God. Most of the times due to human suffering we tend to question the existence of God, and in extreme cases conclude that God does not exist. However, through redemptive listen, a spiritual director can guide someone back into the ways of God. Through redemption listening, one can find meaning and purpose in life, it brings a person to the point of spiritual completeness, creates a feeling of a clear heart and strengthens a person's spiritual journey.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it without a doubt that the act of redemption listening is in line with the Holy Spirit, whereby the person offering help can only provide guidance and understanding. The role is similar to that of the Holy Spirit who acts as our helper and guider in the spiritual journey. Dr. Philips offers redemptive listening to Leah a lady who comes to her disturbed and questioning the existence of God. She does not try to give her answers to her questions, but she demonstrates to her the desires of God, and the presence of him in the quiet places where she found solitude (Phillips, 2008, p. 43). Through such listening...