Holy Stratagem! # 4: Obtain a Spiritual Director

Anyone who takes himself for his own spiritual director is the disciple of a fool. - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

It may be very hard or very easy to find a good spiritual director. It is all up to God. Our souls, ultimately, are under the direction of the Blessed Trinity. But God has ordained, in his wisdom, to use human agents to carry on the work of teaching, guiding and evangelizing the earth.

The first step toward finding a good spiritual director who is wise, orthodox, and above all has a genuine love and reverence for Our Lord and Lady, is to….ask Our Lord and Lady for help in the endeavor! Ask every day until you find a suitable candidate and do not worry about it in the meantime. You may consider asking a local priest or deacon if they are available to do this work with you or if they know of someone suitable who might be.

Forgo this exercise if you do not have a prayer life. If you do not pray and speak with God, there is nothing for the Spiritual Director to do but listen to you complain and vacillate. What you may need, if you have not learned to pray, is someone to evangelize you and teach you the basics about the faith. Then you may look for a spiritual director.

If you have a prayer life and the merciful God has given you a spiritual director, you may want to begin recording what you receive or experience of God in prayer, and go to your meetings with you director prepared to discuss these things.

Together, please God almighty, you and your director will develop a true spiritual friendship that has a unique charism and brings you both closer to the loving embrace of the Savior and His gentle mother.

This post is a part of a weekly series on the spiritual strategies given us by God to make us holy through: His sacred scripture, His Sacred Tradition or through His Holy Saints.

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