The obscurity of the postmodern spirit, mainly wrought by the scourging influences of relativism, has called for new searches within the spiritual domain. Millions of people, dissatisfied as they are with the conventionalisms of the established religions, tend to commit the mistake of obliterating any conscious alliance with their formal faiths, thus throwing out the baby with the bath water in the process.
In order to be best appreciated, given its credit, and most of all be constantly relevant to our daily lives, our Christian Catholic faith needs a special forum wherein it can be fostered and rendered fruitful. Serious Catholics cannot live their faith properly and with the required evangelical commitment it entails without the help of a spiritual director. This point was clearly stressed and amply developed by Pope Benedict XVI, during the weekly Cathecesis he delivered on September 16 in Paul VI Hall.
Reflecting on the figure of the Eastern monk Symeon the New Theologian, whose writings exerted a remarkable influence on the theology and spirituality of the East, most particularly those writings which put into the limelight the experience of mystical union with God, the German Pope observed that “the young Symeon himself, as has been said, had found a spiritual director who greatly helped him and for whom he had very great esteem, so much so that, after his death, he also accorded him public veneration.”
The great theological and spiritual geniality of Symeon could not emerge had he not been aided by his spiritual director Symeon the Pious (Eulabes), a simple monk of the Studion monastery in Constantinople. Symeon the Pious was decisively instrumental in helping his directee form a right conscience. When he advised him to read the treatise “The Spiritual Law of Mark the Monk”, the young Symeon was struck by the awesome verse: ‘If you seek spiritual healing be attentive to your conscience. Do all that it tells you and you will find what is useful to you.’ From that moment Symeon would never do something if he would not first have consulted it with his conscience.
Knowing the invaluable help of a spiritual director towards a total configuration with Christ, Pope Benedict made the following appeal: “I would like to say that this invitation continues to be valid for all – priests, consecrated persons and lay people – and especially for young people – to take recourse to the counsels of a good spiritual father, capable of accompanying each one in profound knowledge of oneself, and leading one to union with the Lord, so that one’s life is increasingly conformed to the Gospel. We always need a guide, dialogue, to go to the Lord. We cannot do it with our reflections alone. And this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this guide.”
Although lay people can be spiritual directors, in this year dedicated to us priests, let us, we priests, go back to our priestly roots. Being a priest means, in itself, being a guide, a man of dialogue, and a zealous promoter of ecclesiality for the people of God. It is high time for us priests to prioritize our pastoral commitments. Spiritual direction of souls should be a priority in our priestly ministry. If we discern and prioritize carefully our pastoral commitments, we would surely be allocating sufficient time in order to accompany resolved Catholics who want to “follow the Lamb [Christ] wherever he goes” (Rev 14, 4).
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann