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Faith Today Supplement, The Message, Catholic Diocese of Evansville, March 4, 1988
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I II
A spiritual 'sounding board'
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
NC News Service
C ould I bounce a few
things off you?"
That's how spiritual
direction often starts.
Someone asks you to
be a sounding board, hoping you
will be able to listen.
Sometimes it happens in the mid-
dle of a conversation. Someone
says, "There's something I've
always wanted to ask about. Maybe
you could help me."
A personal story unfolds, a con-
cern is shared, a confidence en-
trusted. You listen. A level of trust
is established.
For that person, you may have
become a spiritual director, some-
one through whom the person will
steer a better course through the
shoals and rocks of life.
A spiritual director is the kind of"
person we all look for when we
try to be more open to God's will,
more serious about living a Chris-
tian life. For most of us, it is a
good friend who provides this
service.
For those who want to go fur-
ther, it is a matter of talking to
people to find a good spiritual
director. This may be a priest or
someone on a parish staff, at
retreat houses and monasteries,
perhaps even on the faculty ,.of a
Catholic university or college.
A spiritual director needs to be a
good person, someone who tries to
be a good Christian, interested in
others and endowed with common
sense and discretion.
Being a good spiritual director
also means knowing limitations.
There are times when a. spiritual
director recognizes that a personal
spiritual matter requires greater
expertise.
A marriage difficulty, for exam-
ple, might call for a marriage
counselor. A struggle with voca-
tional choices often should be
referred to a vocational counselor.
What do you look for in a good
spiritual director?
First, a spiritual director is some-
one who listens, who is interested
in what is being shared, who ac-
cepts what is being told as a per-
son's experience, concern or
problem.
A good spiritual director doesn't
take over the conversation, but
avoids every temptation to jump in
and tall about his or her own
spiritual experiences and concerns.
Spiritual direction is no time for
one-upsmanship.
Second, a spiritual director is
someone who can act as a good
mirror for another's experience.
You share something. The director
listens and responds. The response
may be a word, a look, a smile, a
raised eyebrow or even silence. It
helps you to focus on something
you said. With that you see more
clearly what you should do.
You understand better how you
are to pray and you can see what
God asks of you.
Third, a spiritual director is
someone who can support you as
you seek out the direction you
should take in your life journey.
No one can make big decisions for
us, but it certainly helps to know
that someone is with us as we
make them.
Sometimes a spiritual director
will not agree with a decision you
have made. Even so, a good direc-
tor will let you make that decision
once you are aware of all the
issues. Good directors do not think
they are infallible.
The best spiritual director I have
ever had was an extraordinary,
quiet man. Sometimes he said
nothing at all. He just let me talk
and usually I found my own way
to what had to be done.
At the end of a short session, I
would thank him for all his help
and advice. Then I would get up to
leave and he would just smile.
Spiritual directors like that are
hard to find.
(Father La Verdiere is editor of
Emmanuel.)
An embarrassment of riches
B' Father John Castelot
NC News Service
hen I first began
giving courses in
Scripture to parish
groups many years
ago, I often hit an
embarrassing snag. At the end of a
course people would ask how they
could build on the foundation they
had received. Could I recommend
works for private study?
I would hem and haw and
perhaps come up with a weak sug-
gestion. The fact was that Catholic
biblical scholarship then was still
trying to catch up with studies
done in other circles for a century
or two. It was only in 1943 that
Plus XII issued the landmark en-
cyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu en-
couraging Catholic biblical scholars
to capitalize on the work of their
colleagues in other churches.
It took some time before the
work of Catholic scholars was
available for popular consumption.
There were many technical studies
available, but the problem was
precisely that they were technical. I
might have recommended excellent
things by authors who were not
Catholics, but in those days one
didn't think in ecumenical terms.
Now I am embarrassed in the
other direction. Today there is an
overwhelming wealth of material in
all branches of biblical science
available to the general public.
I generally look for two criteria
in works I recommend: up-to-date
solidity and readability. A book can
be solid and dry as dust; it can be
fascinating but scientifically
unreliable. But more and more
works have appeared which are
both solid and readable.
There is the monumental Jeromc
Biblical Commentary, already in the
process of revision 20 years after
publication. It has proved to be im-
mensely useful.
There are several other commen-
taries written in an engaging style.
Without prejudice to others, I can
mention a few 1 have found par-
ticularly usable, beginning with
"Old Testament Message" and
"New Testament Message" (Michael
Glazier Inc., Wilmington, Del.).
Each is a series of paperbacks on
individual books of the Old Testa-
ment and New Testament.
Liturgical Press in Collegeville,
Minn., has just updated its vastly
popular commentaries in pamphlet
format under the general title,
"Collegeville Bible Commentary."
Outside the Catholic world, one
can call attention enthusiastically to
the numerous publications of For-
tress Press in Philadelphia.
Today there are books for all
tastes, all ages, all levels of
academic background.
My earlier embarrassment has
changed to delight. What a thrill to
have someone tell me that a work
I recommended on Luke by Robert
Karris moved him or her deeply or
that Becoming Human Together,
by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor,
helped to transform a parish into a '
vibrant Christian community.
Of course, some deny the need
for such books. And there is no de-
nying that the Bible can be read
with profit without study. But if
one really wants to understand it
and derive full profit from it, one
simply has to study it. For while it
is the Word of God, it is the Word
of God in the words of humans.
There is a story in the Acts of
the Apostles to illustrate this. A
roya! official from Ethiopia, ap-
parently a convert to Judaism, is
returning from a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. On the way he is
reading the Book of Isaiah.
Philip encounters the Ethiopian
along the road and asks if he
understands what he is reading. His
answer, which speaks volumes,
was, "How can I unless someone
instructs me?" (Acts 8:31).
(Father Castelot is a professor of
Scripture at St. John's Seminary,
Plymouth, Mich.) ......
Building
a home
library ....
By Katharine Bird
NC News Service
S tart with liturgy and
Scripture if you plan to
build a home lib.rary on
faith, recommends Gabe
Huck, director of Liturgy
Training Publications in the Arch-
diocese of Chicago. #
F.or Huck, a good edition of the
Psalms in a translation "that a per-
son would feel like using over and
over again" is a necessity. The
Psalms "are the text from which
we learn how to pray," Huck ex-
plained. They also help "shape a
life in relation to God, to others
and to oneself."
The Psalms "are not for just dab-
bling; they are for steady consump-
tion over and over again," Huck
added.
Elaine Rendler, a faculty mmber
at Georgetown University's Center
for Liturgy in Washington, agreed.
She noted that there are psalms
like Psalm 42, which speaks of
disappointment and loss but con-
cludes with a statement of hope in
God -- that can be applied to a
child who is sad at losing a basket-
ball game but also to an adult who
has lost a loved one.
Huck thinks it is important "for
a person who is part of the wOi-
shiping assembly on Sunday to find
a way to read and ponder Scrip-
ture" at home regularly. The most
accessible way is through books
tied to the church's year, such as
missals, which include the readings
for the three yearly Scripture cycles
of the church.
A frequent speaker at liturgy
workshops thoughout the country.
Ms. Rendler suggests that peopl z
also look for works related to what
is going on in their lives. For peo-
ple dealing with the questions of
mid-life, for instance, she might
recommend F. Scott Peck's book,
The Road Less Traveled.
Ms. Rendler would have tapes on
centering prayer in a home library.
And she recommends keeping
music that helps one to relax. "In
the hectic pace we keep in most of
our lives, being still is very impor-
tant to finding God."
The documents of the Second
Vatican Council and the U.S.
bishops', pastoral letters on peace
and on the economy belong in the
home library, Huck believes. They
help us "to look at what it means
to be a baptized Christian and part
of a community. They teach us we
can't wall ourselves off."
Noting that the Vatican II
documents are "formidable if look-
ed at all at once," he recommend-
ed taking them "a little at a time."
#
