Inside each human person, say pastoral ministers, is a deep desire to connect with what is most beautiful, joyful, peaceful and true about the world and about each person's unique call from God to be of service. But the noise, busy-ness and pressures of contemporary life often leave many people too frazzled to experience God's presence for more than a nano-second here and there.

"In our fast paced, changing, post-modern world, so many things are falling apart," said Father James Clarke, director of spiritual formation at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. "How do people maintain virtues of hope, joy and love and not be overrun by becoming bitter, despairing or resentful?"

Enter the spiritual director --- a skilled spiritual companion assisting a person of faith to discover God's presence in his/her life, build a vibrant prayer life, learn spiritual tools for discernment and decision-making, and develop a close relationship with God.

The interest in spiritual direction has mushroomed worldwide in the last 20 years. What used to be a spiritual tool practiced by almost exclusively priests and nuns is now being enthusiastically embraced by laity.

"There's a deep hunger in the world for spiritual friendship and companionship," said Christopher McCauley, executive director of Stillpoint: The Center for Christian Spirituality in Pasadena.

Sunday liturgies --- with its focus on word, Eucharist and communal prayer --- do not offer opportunities for Catholics to converse about grace-filled moments in their day-to-day lives.

"People are needing to talk about their experiences of God," said Mercy Sister Mary Ann Scofield, founder of Spiritual Directors International. In nearly 17 years, SDI has grown from less than a hundred people to more than 5,000 members from 30 different countries. A conference in Costa Mesa this April drew 600 participants from five continents. As the desire for spiritual direction swells in dioceses around the globe, so has the need to train and certify skilled spiritual directors.

Everyday holiness
"Catholics who are serious about their faith recognize they can't do it alone," said Father Clarke, who has been receiving spiritual direction since 1974 and has been offering spiritual direction to others since 1980, when he was ordained. "Many lay leaders now consider spiritual direction a necessity."

Joy Jones, a married mother of three sons, began spiritual direction as part of her formation process to become a pastoral associate for Holy Trinity Church in San Pedro. Growing in her relationship with God has allowed her to become a more effective minister, she said.

"It has helped me to be more present to people at the parish and to listen to them better," said Jones. "It has helped me teach catechesis and lead RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation] in a deeper and more profound way."

As parishioners started asking Jones for help with their prayer lives, she decided to complete a three-year training program with the Spirituality Center in Los Angeles to become certified as a spiritual director. Now she also provides spiritual direction at archdiocesan sponsored directed retreats.

"As people build up their relationship with God, they find peace and enjoyment in life, and their relationships with other people increases," said Jones. A personal benefit has been more patience in listening to her sons.

Deacon Gary Becker of San Roque Church, Santa Barbara, said he used to "run over" the moments when God broke into his life.

"Spiritual direction helps me look at my own experience in a contemplative way," he explained. "I'm paying more attention to the real holiness in every day."

The experience led Becker and his wife to train to become spiritual directors, a ministry the couple offers from their home office.

A spiritual director "keeps you honest," added Deacon Jerry Cellner, director of the archdiocesan Office of Diaconate Formation, who has met with his spiritual director once a month for 20 years. His director will ask about the deacon's prayer life, spiritual reading, decisions he might be facing, or how relationships --- work or personal --- are being formed with God's guidance. The question "What is God calling you to do?" might encourage a meaningful dialogue between Cellner and his spiritual director about a particular family or work issue.

Ancient beginnings
Spiritual direction is an ancient Catholic tradition dating from the fourth century when some Christians took to living in the desert as a way of making a more radical commitment to Christianity and to their prayer life. Desert fathers and mothers, like St. Anthony of Egypt, began offering spiritual guidance to new desert dwellers struggling with prayer and temptations, said Wilkie Au, professor at Loyola Marymount University in the practice of spiritual direction.

When monasteries were developed in the 6th century, senior monks or abbots helped new monks to internalize the Benedictine rule and embrace a rigorous spiritual path, added Au. St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century developed the 30-day spiritual exercises as a way of helping new seminarians discern God's will in their lives.

"He formed the exercises to help a person make a free decision, and to make major life decisions with as much freedom as possible from compulsions or attachments," said Au, who recently, with Noreen Cannon Au, authored "The Discerning Heart: Exploring the Christian Path" (Paulist Press).

Vatican II emphasized that the call to holiness is universal, creating a new understanding that the spiritual path is offered to men and women in all walks of life --- lay, religious or ordained, married or celibate.

Responding to God
"How do you respond to that call to holiness in the concrete context of your life?" Au might ask a directee. "What does the call to holiness require of me? How might I discern that?"

A spiritual director offers a helping relationship to a directee seeking answers to those questions and wanting to develop a spiritual practice that supports their call. The director doesn't offer advice about solving problems as a pastoral counselor might, but rather helps a person tap into God's guidance and to sort out God's voice from other pulls or tugs that come from the culture or elsewhere, said Au.

Spiritual direction is not counseling or therapy, emphasized spiritual directors. "A counselor's role is to help individuals deal with a particular issue where they feel stuck. A counselor is using a microscope," said Father Clarke. "A spiritual director asks, 'Where is God in this particular situation?' A spiritual director is using a telescope."

Many lay people become interested in spiritual direction when facing life-altering decisions like whether to change careers, move to another city, or choose a marriage partner.

"God has given each one of us the key to understand our inner souls. I don't think we were taught to trust that," said St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Carol Quinlivan, director of the archdiocesan Office of Parish Life. "A good director helps you find your key."

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles pastoral associates, parish life directors and deacons in the process of discernment and formation are required to be in spiritual direction.

"We want to strongly emphasize the need for them to develop their own spirituality and a spirituality that will sustain them in ministry," said Sister Quinlivan.

Choosing a director
Choosing a spiritual director should also be guided by faith. At the Spirituality Center, Sister Thomas Bernard MacConnell, director, meets with potential directees to get a sense of the person and then to recommend three to five people who could serve as spiritual directors. People are encouraged to talk by phone or meet each spiritual director in person to ascertain with whom do they feel the most comfortable and are able to sense that person's authenticity.

"People ask me, 'How will I know?' And I say, 'I don't know how you'll know, but I know you'll know,'" said Sister MacConnell.

The center, started under Cardinal Timothy Manning in 1983, also offers a three-year training program to become a spiritual director. About 200 people have completed the program, operated from the Doheny campus of Mt. St. Mary's College. Some spiritual directors offer their services pro-bono or are hired for ministry by their parish, while others offer a negotiated fee, said Sister MacConnell.

Societal impact
Spiritual direction will be limited if it only directs people inward, said directors. "Spiritual direction helps people to become friends of God and eventually prophets," said Sister Scofield. With time, many directees integrate their experience of contemplation with their social conscience. Ultimately, she said, spiritual direction "has to have an effect on the world."

It's already moving out into the world as spiritual directors apply their ministry in hospitals, homes for the elderly, prisons or homeless shelters.

Since the early 1980s Mercy Sister Mariana Clifford Rodriguez has worked with Mexican American and Central American communities in the Mission District of San Francisco. "We need to get in touch with our spirituality in two cultures," said Sister Clifford, herself a daughter of a Colombian mother and a father of Irish heritage.

Immigrants often lack extended family and trust the church as a place where they can be listened to, she said. Sister Clifford has created a three-year training program for Latinos to serve their community as spiritual directors.

The hunger for spiritual direction is spreading to people of other faiths, including Protestants, Jews and even some Muslims, who have sought out Catholic spiritual directors. More ministers from other faith traditions are training in spiritual direction to be able to offer it to their congregations. "It's a great ecumenical bridge," said Father Clarke, who chairs the archdiocesan Spirituality Commission.

College students are also exploring spiritual direction in greater numbers. Sister of St. Joseph of Orange Joanna Carroll is becoming certified in spiritual direction through the Center for Spiritual Development in Orange and serves as a full-time campus minister for spiritual direction at Loyola Marymount University. She meets monthly, twice a month or even weekly on an individual basis with students from diverse faith traditions who want to integrate their spirituality into every aspect of their life --- their studies, relationships with peers or parents, and career decisions.

"I'm a listening presence, witnessing to students that God is wanting to journey with them through this process and loving them along the way," said Sister Carroll. "Students come to a sense of their own answers within."

Students' deepest dreams or desires are planted by God, said Sister Carroll. She helps students to sense God's deep love for them.

"What will bring someone the greatest fulfillment, greatest joy and peace? A student's desire, a dream, if they really listen, is not going to go against who they are and who God has created them to be in their uniqueness," said Sister Carroll.

While most spiritual direction happens on a one-to-one basis, Sister Quinlivan also directs two lay women's groups in spiritual direction. "We listen in such a way that reverences someone else's experience of God and allows their experience to speak to us," said Sister Quinlivan.

"What we notice as we move in spiritual direction together is a tapestry --- threads of people sharing, somehow mysteriously beautifully blending together to create a landscape of our souls. The good weaves in with the bad and we're in awe at the grace of God working in one another's lives."

Finding a spiritual director Referrals to a list of spiritual directors can be made by contacting: ---Spiritual Directors International: www.sdiworld.org ---Spirituality Center (Los Angeles): (213) 747-6508 ---Stillpoint: The Center for Christian Spirituality (Pasadena): www.stillpointca.org ---Center for Spiritual Development (Orange): www.thecsd.org