Discerning a Call to be Spiritual Companion
IF YOU...
feel led to nurture your skills as a spiritual companion?
feel curious about the calling of spiritual companioning and want to learn more?
find that people seek you out for conversations of significance to them?
want to learn more about Wayfaring Companions?
If these are the types of questions you are asking, then we hope this page will be helpful to you. We (the Wayfaring Companions Team) want to offer these thoughts and resources to help you find greater clarity around the calling and work of spiritual companioning. Our goal here is not to convince you to do our program. Consider this page to be a short class that introduces some of the basics of spiritual direction, as well as a few tools for discernment.
To begin, here is a brief video introducing our faculty and our understanding of spiritual direction:
Next, is a brief video describing our 2-year program:Wayfaring Companions
As part of the discernment process, Matt Johnson (matt@neighboringmovement.org) will have a conversation with you about whether Wayfaring Companions is a good fit for you. If you have not already, please contact Matt to schedule this conversation.
Note: EVERYTHING listed below is totally optional. It is listed here so you have some things to think about and can explore more of who and what we're about.
Reading
Holy Listening by Margaret Guenther. We recommend this book as a beautiful entry point to the work of spiritual direction. Guenther is practically wise, and compassionately compelling. Enjoy!
Sleeping With Bread; Holding What Gives You Life by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn. If you have not discovered this simple treasure, now is your chance. This beautifully illustrated book offers accessible insight to the discernment practice of the Daily Examen from the Ignatian tradition.
Want to go deeper? Here are a few other books we would recommend:
Discernment; A Path to Spiritual Awakening by Rose Mary Dougherty
Enter by the Gate; Jesus' 7 Guidelines When Making Hard Choices by Flora Slosson Wuellner
Illuminating the Way by Christine Valters Paintner - the mystics as archetypes; art meditation in preparation for contemplative prayer with images, symbols, and lectio and visio divina.
Moxie
Practice loving your neighbors by being present, hearing their stories, and asking them questions.
To help move towards your own Moxie, do this Finding My Role in Social Change worksheet
Presence
Develop your own contemplative prayer practice
Take a self-paced online course on Contemplative Prayer, Finding God in Culture (through paintings, music, poetry, etc). Contact Wendi (wb1171@gmail.com) to learn more about these online courses.
Sit with your life story by doing a River of Life exercise.
Think About
Questions to consider as you prepare for your discernment interview with Matt:
Describe the journey that has brought you to this particular season.
What attracted you to the work of spiritual direction?
Is there anything about Wayfaring Companions that especially attracted you? If so, what was it?
Do you have a vision for how you will offer spiritual direction?
If not, that is ok. Some paths are discovered one step at a time.
If so, please describe it.
Program Details
All retreats are held online. Program details are outlined on the Wayfaring Companions page.
Contact Matthew
To continue the discernment process, we encourage you to reach out to Matthew Johnson by completing this form. Completing the form and contacting Matt puts you under no obligation.