glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- spiritual direction It is 6:17 PM Saturday evening here. I just heard Carol's alarm go off for the fifth time. She is slowing getting up to face her work night. I am getting fresh pot of coffee ready for her. I wanted to jot down some thoughts on Spiritual direction before they disappear from sight. I have been reading a lot lately Christian Spirituality and it dawned on me this evening that I use to think about becoming a Spiritual Director. Now that was many years ago when I considered being a Spiritual Director, because now that is beyond my personal calling. My personal calling these days is to live how I have been living since I left the work world back in June 2007. I am seeking to live a simple middle class Christian life during the last days of the American Empire. From my perspective America is doomed and will never regain its greatness in the eyes of the world. America has become a sinister joke since it elected Trump to be President (a world leader). Getting back to spiritual direction I thought of making a video tonight where I share with Youtube how I got into Spiritual Direction and why I never become one (Spiritual Director). Many years ago I did start taking classes on becoming a Spiritual Director with the Dominican Order, but never finished the courses. The major reason why I stopped going to these Spiritual Direction classes was because the Bible was ignored. The people I talked to during the Spiritual Direction classes had no knowledge of the Bible. I thought to myself how can one give spiritual direction to people if you do not have a knowledge of the Bible? How can one come to a spiritual knowledge of God if one does not know the teachings of the Bible? Anyway more could be written, but Carol is up and I have to spend time with her before she rushes off to work. It is Now 8:02 PM Saturday night, Carol has left for work. I will hopefully see her tomorrow morning around 9 o'clock AM. I could die in my sleep or there could be a terrorist attack at the hospital where Carol works. We are surrounded by madmen and madwomen. We have to trust the Lord to watch over us and our loved ones in these dangerous times. So earlier I was writing about the spiritual disciple of soul care or spiritual direction. It was because of all my intensive reading in spiritual direction that caused me to reexamine why I was going to church on Sundays. I was told for years in preparing for the Christian Ministry that a minister is to provide spiritual care to his congregation. Not only is the head minister to provide soul care to his flock but also the ruling elders and deacons. But what I experienced in churches was no one on one spiritual care or pastoral oversight. The churches we were members of over the years the ministers made real no effort to provide pastoral care for me or my family. Now once a year two elders would make a house visit and ask us questions about the church like do we like the preaching etc. . . One the two elders would read a couple verses from the Bible and say a short prayer and then they would leave for their next house visit. That was the sum total of our pastoral care or spiritual direction for that year. Basically we were left out in the American Wasteland to keep ourselves spiritual healthy. In Protestant churches there is the view that Sunday sermons is all a minister needs to do in order to provide spiritual care for his congregation. As long as the minister preaches a sermon or two a week he has fed the flock and now it is up to them to live the Christ like life. Now a church might have throughout a week Wednesday prayer meeting or a Bible Study for church members to attend if they can find time after working eight hour that day and rushing home from work to eat a meal and spend some time with the wife and kids before going to bed for the night. In the end it seems to me the typical American life for most Christians does not allow time for a spiritual life in a visible church community. I personally do not think Christians in general have any biblical understanding of what it means to live a Christ like life. We are all just praying and hoping we make it to the Pearly Gates when we die. Any way back to spiritual direction, I have come to accept the reality no ones care for my soul except my wife. Well I believe the Lord cares for my soul or my growth in grace and knowledge of divine realities. But in the end I am alone as I travel to the heavenly City of God. This verse just came to my mind from the Gospel of Luke "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" Luke 15:10; "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance" Luke 15:7; "It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found" Luke 15:32. The Lord has found me and now I am to rest in Him till He calls me out of this life to the world to come. I will close to brush my teeth and as we quickly approach the End. "Abide in Me, and I in you" John 15:4. 8:31 p.m. - 2018-12-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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