SDC Webinar March 2025

0:00Why don't we get started? And as people come in, love to hear. Oh, Vince from Delaware. Good, Vince. Good to see you. I know we spoke a a couple like, probably last week, I think it was. Good. Good to see you all. Good to have you here. So I try to make these webinars informative to all of you. So I do give you the opportunity to ask questions, and you'll see there's a q and a box where you can put your questions. So please do that, and I will, try to answer them after I've got some done. I just try to give you a sense of the program, the context of the program just to kinda start off. But then we can go into questions pretty soon after that. Just to introduce myself, my name is Maria Brackett.

0:52I'm the director of the certificate here at the university. I'm a spiritual director myself too. I've been doing this, this ministry for about I think it's about sixteen, seventeen years now, and, something I really enjoy. It's a real privilege and and a joy. It's always, it's always a gift for me to talk to, you know, and have these one on one sessions with my directees. So let's get started here and just talk a little bit. I wanna talk first about what spiritual direction is, because I think that's important when you're looking for a spiritual direction program. I think it's important to kinda understand how we understand spiritual direction. There's a lot of different understandings out there.

1:44Right? Even though it's, Allison, good to see you. And Janine, good to see you too. Janine, you asked right off the bat, is this a full time program or part time? It's not even part time. It's three courses a year. I'll I have a little slide that I can show you kinda to explain that. Gary, good to have you from here from Illinois. So spiritual direction. What is spiritual direction? Well, there's, I think, there's a lot of different understandings of this according to the faith traditions and also just a core just within the last probably twenty years with coaching and all those different things coming up, there can just be a lot of different understandings. The way that we teach, about spiritual direction in our certificate well, first of all, Divine Mercy University is a graduate school, Catholic graduate school for psychologists and counselors, and it's in it went off into and developed this certificate really to try to help people in ministry with this one on one sitting with people and company them.

2:54We know that spiritual director and surgeon are not psychologists. You'll see that right on the slide. We know that that spiritual direction is not therapy, that it's real walking with the person as they walk with the lord. Right? Helping them in their pilgrimage. Strengthening them, making things clear for them through the conversation that you have, and maybe your own experience of your relationship with the board, sort of type of mentoring, but most of all, just accompanying them, walking with them, deep listening, assisting them on their path, being there for them, and service both to them and to the Lord. In deep listening, it's just very important for us in our program to the direct deed to help them deepen in their experience of the lord and his narrative in their lives so they could be strengthened and encouraged to continue this path of growing closer and closer to him.

3:53It also has some elements of formation. Just, as we're walking with the lord, he teaches us, and a spiritual director just tries to to help the director to see what's going on. It's not that a spiritual director has special glasses, but the job of a spiritual director is really to be a very good listener and have their heart kind of turned towards the directee, the ears of their heart turned towards the directee, but also the ears of their heart turn towards God. And, just help the directee to hear better, through these conversations. In the program, we as I said, a big emphasis is on deep listening, so you are taught skills of listening. And you're you you definitely go through exercises just to help you to be a better listener.

4:48Sorry. I thought that yeah. There we go. So that's what spiritual direction is. Now let me just skip here until so a little bit about the program just quickly so that you can have an understanding. It's six online courses. We call them asynchronous, which means not in real time. So you do enter the certificate in each course with a cohort, a group of people, a class. It's usually about, 16 to 18 people. Although in some of the, courses where we do more, work, small group work, the the cohorts might be a smaller size. And asynchronous means not real time. So, you go through the material that's online, the readings, the videos, all the different ways that we have to teach you online. You go it by week by week.

5:46Every course is eight weeks long. And you, and you do the homework in the times that you have. Of course, there are opportunities to get online with the instructor and your classmates, but none of those opportunities are obligatory. There's always another way to do those assignments, and they always record those meetings. So it just helps you to kind of have flexibility. Although, as you could imagine, most of the students love to get online, but sometimes it's just not possible. You know, we have our lives and other things that we need to do. So six online courses and two residencies. The residencies are an integral part, of the third course and the fifth course. They happen here in Virginia.

6:37They're from a Wednesday evening to a Sunday lunch. We're very close to the airport, to Dallas International Airport. Here, it's really not even more than ten minutes away, so it's very easy to get in and out, also major highways. And then another part of the program are sixty practicum hours. This is after you've done a considerable amount of the program, almost two thirds of it. You start in the fifth and the sixth course. You start seeing people in spiritual direction as a spiritual director in training, and, you need to log forty eight hours of seeing people in spiritual direction, then the rest of that those practical outcome hours are twelve hours of supervision that we give you in our program with our instructors.

7:27And that makes up the sixty hours that you're required to have in order to complete the program. All the courses are pass, fail. There aren't any exams, but there are evaluations as you go along. And you can, it's you can not pass two of the assignments and still pass the course. But if you don't pass more three or more, you have to take the course again. You can take a course up to two times. We don't usually let people repeat residencies because they're so time consuming, and they just you know, they're a significant cost per year and everything like that. So we try to do the best and really give you feedback in those moments. These are the six courses. As I said, each course is eight weeks long.

8:22So so these are the six courses. In our website, we've got, the course descriptions. If you wanted that, you know, it's about a paragraph about each course, so it helps you. But as you can see, they pretty much go between, spiritual theology, which is really the spine of the program, which is how does a person grow in grace and their relationship with God, and then human development and those, you know, how how do how does a person develop, how do human relationships develop, and then those skills that you need for spiritual direction. So the 300 and the 500 really are around those skills. The 200 is the human development for spiritual direction, and then the 400, 500, and 600, and the 100 really has that theological content.

9:15But as you're going along, of course, you're integrating all this together. You know? I don't know if you all know much about the university, but it was started twenty five years ago by a group of Catholic psychologists and Christian psychologists and counselors that were looking to integrate faith and the human sciences. So the university is continually, being true to faith and true to science and weaving that the wisdom of the Christian the Catholic Christian tradition with the human sciences trying to be true to both and and trying to those theories of psychology that just don't match with the Christian understanding of the person really just to train their counselors and psychologists to understand the the difference and what what is going to help a person really to grow and the truth of who they are.

10:10So the spiritual direction course, of course, we're not training you to be counselors or psychologists. So it's not a heavily, psycho psychological, but it does teach you about the human person and human relationships. And, you know, and, like, that 200 course is always taught by a counselor or a psychologist. Just because we do you know, Saint Thomas Aquinas says, grace builds on nature. And so we've gotta understand that human nature that works with grace. Right? That's kind of like the, the matter, you know, that that works with grace. So that the, you know, the collaboration that we have with the Lord and his grace. Right? So these are just some pictures of the residencies. It It just talks about them, the how they're two four day residencies here in Sterling, Virginia.

11:07They're just a opportunity to put in practice the skills that you're learning and under the supervision of spiritual directors and therapists. So it's a lot of small group work, a lot of coaching, giving you feedback on how the skills are developing. Really great great opportunity for just some real in person learning, and that we always have a retreat on Saturday morning just to give you some quiet time to reflect and be with the Lord and, just get a better sense of where he is at work in your own life too. So, you know, we talked about them being eight courses and eight weeks. Right? Each course is eight weeks long. You take one course at a time. Typically, requires six to ten hours of, commitment in when you're in your courses studying them.

12:00And there's roughly a six to ten week break between each term, and you complete the certificate in two years. So let me just show you a little bit more of how that actually works, the terms. Right? This is a question that we get, so we created this this. You know? So when are we in class? When are we not? Right? The next term that starts, you'll see, we have a term that starts on May and actually starts this year and on May 21. So the summer term and the fall term is really what I'm working with people right now to apply for. You know, the January term, we just finished it actually this week on Tuesday. So that's the one that's early January to early March. So there are three starts, we say, for the program.

12:46So you can start in January. You can start in late May. You can start in August. We're always offering all the courses, so you just move right along. But you see, these are when the courses are held, and then these are the breaks between terms. So from early March, like, the the students are on break as of yesterday, to to late May, They'll start classes again on May 21, then they've got another break from mid July to the end of August. Usually, classes start, like, the third week on August. And then the downtime in act is the middle of October to early January. So this just helps you to kind of do life, and, we just want kind of slow learning, not to be too slow, of course, but just to allow you to kinda grow into this ministry and discern and pray.

13:43And, the students use the you know, from the third class on, you kinda have homework from the courses. So that's really also what you do sometimes on your breaks going, you know, on a retreat. We ask you to do at least a five day spiritual exercise experience. You know, you could have done it at least two years before the program starts or you do it during the program. So sometimes students do that. And then you start seeing people in spiritual directions. So that that takes also time in your break. Okay? So let's see if there's anything else. I think let's go to questions. I'm gonna stop sharing because I can't see your questions when I'm sharing, and then we'll come back to the, presentation if we need it for one thing or another.

14:28Okay. So good to see you all here. Gosh. Now I'm seeing that there's a good amount of you. So, please, any questions that you might have, put them in the q and a box, so that I can pull them up. That would be a great help. Or just put them in the chat box. So, Gabriela, how long are the classes? And it is one per week. So, Gabriela, remember what I said about synchronous? Synchronous means that you asynchronous means that you're doing the classwork on itself on yourself. Sometimes the teachers do hold weekly meetings. Right? So if they do, it it would just be one per week. It's not obligatory, but it you'd you know, there is that. You can, there is that meeting that can be held that you could attend, or you could just listen to the recording.

15:53Janine, is it true a student needs one year spiritual direction prior to starting? No. It's not true. That used to be how the program was, but from our experience of running the program for three years, we realized that sometimes people have been in spiritual direction and need to get back into it, or they've had a lot of other different types of accompaniment, but not necessarily spiritual direction. So what we've done is we've changed the requirement. You can get in the program without having a spiritual director, but you do have to have one by the end of the first course. I hope that's answered that. Okay. Let me go to the q and a. Oh, yes. What is the tuition for the program? Okay. Cost payment plans.

16:35Okay. Let's go to that slide then since you're asking me about that. Can I share my screen again? Okay. So here we are. That's what we're there. So let's go to the cost. So these are this is the cost of the program. It's $800 per course. First of all, let me just say about the cost. It's a pay as you go program. So as you register for each course, and residency, you pay for them. So you don't have to do the tuition all upfront or anything like that. And so you're doing three courses a year and one residency a year. Right? So that's what you would need to be paying. The total total cost is 700 $7,500 when you put this all together. But the breakdown is $800 per course and thirteen fifty per residency.

17:40This price always gets reviewed each year according to cost of living, right, and things that are happening. So we are reviewing it, and the cost will go up in August. We try not to make it a significantly huge amount, and we really you know, we're a nonprofit, so we just try to bring in as much money as we need to run the program. So that's how that works. Gonna stop sharing so I can continue answering your questions. Vincent, I go in a Franciscan retreat every year for a week. It's life in the spirit. Do I need another retreat? Vincent, we do ask you to do the Ignatian spiritual exercises just because that's such a tradition within the Catholic church and even in Christian traditions. Right?

18:43And so it is really important for us, we think, that you do have that experience because it helps you to understand a lot of dynamics of the spiritual life. So it is Ignition Spiritual Exercises. Maria Munoz, you're saying that you're a new twin mom. Congratulations, Maria. Wow. That's a lot, and we're gonna pray for you. But please keep in touch with me. I know that it can be a lot right now, but, at some point in time, I would love you. You sound like a beautiful person. I'd love you to look into the program. Is there, someone asked you me if there's any prerequisite to join. Not really. I mean, to be accepted to the program, you do have to do an application, and we ask you to get a letter of recommendation from your, parish priest or your faith the leader of your community if you come from, like, a you know, your pastor.

19:51Right? So there is that. And there's there's a couple essay questions that are part of the application. That's what's needed. Helena, why is this not a graduate degree program? Well, Helena, we wanted to create a program that could be open to a lot of different people that have various backgrounds and maybe have been involved in ministry or catechetics or or different you know, have more learned in a lot of different ways. So we didn't wanna to prohibit people like that from joining, being able to study the program. So that's why we didn't you don't need any type of degree to, take this program. So this is a question about Helena, I hope that answered that. If you if I didn't, please let me know.

20:51A list of books we read during the course. So there's so many different things that we read during the course. Everything is online. There are a couple books that we re read in its in their entirety. Like, at the discernment course, you read, he leadeth me, that book by father Chiswick. And you also re read, Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin. You read a good amount of Jordan Almond's, spiritual theology. You read father Boniface and Hicks and father Ackland's book on spiritual direction, sharing the father's love. And so those are the books that we say to you, please buy, but everything else is on the is on Canvas, the learning management system. There are chapters of books and things like that.

21:47Mesa basically, it's, a lot of just, like, great, writers from the tradition of spiritual direction direction within the Catholic world and things like that. But we've kind of gone through sources and collected them and put them up there, for you. Hope that helps. Hermes, is the residency in person? Yes. It is. It's here in Virginia. It's, it's in person training that we do here. You know, just it just gives us an opportunity to have you all here to do all this together and just to get a sense of, who you are and how this is fitting with you. And it just gives, you know, a a good sense to, just get to know you and for you to get to know us. Does the program offer access to possible spiritual directors?

22:47Well, you can already have access to possible spiritual directors through us on the DMU website, which I can pull up here so that you all can see it. I'd love to do that because then I can actually show you where the program that information of the program is. I'll also show you where there's a whole, list of graduates of the spiritual direction program. So just one other question before I do that. Are scholarships available? There are really no scholarships. We do have what's called the Spiritual Direction Grant Fund, which is a fund that we continually have open for people who want to donate money to help people study the certificate. So as we get money in, I give it out. At this point in time, I don't have any money in that, fund.

23:38I always pray that more will come, but that's what we do. As it comes in, we give it out. So that's what we have. Do I need to drive to the residency? You can drive to the residency. You can take a bus. You can fly in a plane, however you'd like to get to Sterling, Virginia. Okay. Let me pull up the website because I do wanna show that to you all. I think it'll just will help you to get a look at it and also to, I wanna show you some things on it, and that will help you to be able to find things in the future if you wanna get to know more about the program. So this is the website. If you see, here's the website address, divinemercy.edu. And so for the question on where can you find spiritual directors, you go to this tab that says, I hope you're all seeing my screen.

24:40I'm assuming that you are, and you're seeing what I'm doing. If you can just give me a in the chat, if you could just give tell me, yes. You see my screen, that would be great. Wouldn't wanna be showing you all this for not. Thank you so much. Great. Okay. So here's the screen. So alumni here. Alumni directory. So here you go. These are all the programs that the university runs. Right? So if you're looking for counselors or psychologists, you also could look here. These are all but here, it says spiritual direction certificate. Right? So you click on that, and you'll see all the people. As I said, there's about 90 people here. And as you can see here, it puts who what program they graduated from and the state they're in.

25:36Then you can click on it, and it will give you a way to get in touch with them. This person even put their address. You know, it's really what they wanna put up here. And so and they also put this. Like, she's also a counselor, so she puts what she specializes in. Okay. So that's that. Now I wanna take you so you see it's under the alumni alumni directory and then spiritual direction certificate. And that's where you can find graduates of the program that are out there giving spiritual direction, and you can contact them. Look for your state or some of them see people in Zoom. Some of them you know, you can always contact them, and they'll let you know. So this is where you find more information about our program online.

26:24You go to that website, right, divinemercy.edu. Look under academics, spiritual direction certificate. Click on that. You'll get the pop up that I was telling you about asking people about if they wanna donate to the spiritual direction certificate grant. And then this is the spiritual direction certificate page. And you see over here what we're you know, we've got the stamp approval from the Newman guide, which is great. And so it's frequently asked questions, admissions requirements. Right? Someone was asking me about that, and this is what it is. Completed application form, letter of recommendation from the applicant's pastor or minister. Right? So that's to get into the program. And then after you've finished one hundred and two hundred, we do a little bit more work to have you pass to the next part.

27:20So we ask you to get a letter of recommendation from your spiritual director and then from a peer or a friend, and then we'll schedule a virtual interview, right, with you, to get into the second part. We call it the first tier and the second tier. And remember I was telling you the courses? This is where you can find the course descriptions for each of the courses. Remember I showed you the names of them, and this is actually course descriptions of them. The tuitions and costs, which I explained to you, but it's a little bit more broken down here just for you to see it. We also have a blog, which, you know, I love talking to people about this because these are articles or blogs that we've written about different aspects about of spiritual direction.

28:17So they're just great to read and to yeah, if you're looking for different things about spiritual direction, they're a little bit old. They're 2022. But, you know, there's nothing that's out of that's not adequate to our time right now, actually. If it was, you know, kind of expired in content, we would take it down, but some of the stuff is just perennial. Good. Great content. So took us a bit to, create those, so I don't like and so there's a good amount there, actually. You can see. There's a, you know, four at least four pages of it. Good. Well, I'm gonna stop sharing again, see if you have any more questions for me. It's been good to see you all here. I I recognize a good amount of your names.

29:07I'm always happy when people who've reached out to me, get on to one of these webinars and ask their questions. Is there anything else that I can help you with this evening as far as any other questions that you might have? So can I drive home at night during the in person portion? We really don't recommend it just because even if you live close, we had a girl that was, like, twenty minutes away, and she ended up she tried driving in, and then she just ended up asking to stay at the hotel. Just because you are tired, you know, they're eight to five days, but it's a lot of listening. And we do want you to kinda separate yourself. It's kind of like a, you know, it's kinda like a retreat experience for you and to get and has time to spend with your cohort.

30:11So if you needed to, of course, you you can, but we don't recommend it just because of the schedule and you needing to be able to focus on it and no. So, Janine, each so for the residency, if you wanted to travel there and not spend the nights at the hotel, you would need to come Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Four days. The Wednesday evening, you could definitely come for, but, if you need if you couldn't come that day just because this is DC and there's, if you live around here, you know how hard the traffic is. You could skip that Wednesday evening. But, yeah, as I said, we it's we really don't re recommend it just because it is a lot. But if there are and and you always can tell me if there are special needs.

31:09We do a great job with accommodating people as far as food, and even in the hotel if you need to sleep in a certain place. We do have the the residency set up so that you have a single room. Right? So that's, that's how this goes. There is a good amount. Yeah. I'm seeing where you live, Janine. So there is a good amount of traffic coming into DC. I just did it the other day, and it takes a lot of time. Okay. Any other questions that you might have for me? Gosh. I can't believe that I've answered all the questions. This is kind of interesting. Helena, could you please speak to the work of a spiritual director? Sure. I mean, I'm a spiritual director myself, so something I'm involved in. I see probably 15 to 20 people on a monthly basis.

32:28You know, I have a way that they we set up those appointments. Some of them I see on Zoom. Some of them I see in person. A lot of times it's at the university in my office there. And so my work, as I was saying about spiritual direction, is really I meet with them on the frequent with the frequency that they like, or they request. And, it's usually on a monthly basis. And, you know, we talk about where you know, how their life has been, where they've kind of sensed god's presence, or they've sensed either, you know, strengthening, or they've sensed trials or difficulties, always with the focus of of helping them find the lord in their life. So it's a lot of deep listening, asking them questions to enter into their heart, into the the heart of their hearts, their interior, where the where the catechism of the Catholic church says is where the lord dwells, and it's a place of commitment and covenant.

33:32So that is, what you do, and you build a relationship over time. It's a confidential relationship. You don't share what your direct details you, of course. And, and hopefully, it's a trustful relationship so that through that relationship, they can be strengthened and grow in their relationship with the lord. How far ahead does one need to apply enroll? Some to so from the May course, really, I'm doing it now. April 1 is when we send out the orientation course for for the people that are beginning in May. So we really do like to have you, into class, you know, and signed up by that April 1 date so we can get you through. We still continue. You can see on the website there, we continue to accept applications for the May, course up till the beginning of May, but it's really better if you can.

34:37Right? And then so it's usually about at least a month before. Hope that answers that. Helena, your question, I never thought of paying for spiritual direction. Is it all a paid profession? It's not really a profession. It's a ministry. So it's not a career route. People it's really different, Helena. And, Vincent, you're also asking this about stipends. Some people get paid for asked to be paid for it. Some don't. It's typical that religious, and priests probably don't ask to get paid because they're supported in other ways. But, you know, they some I've seen in a lot of them that they usually ask that you give some type of donation to their to their congregation or their order. Right? Then for lay spiritual directors, the same thing.

35:26Some of them ask to be paid, to to receive something. It's usually you know, it's not anything like you would pay for a lot of these other things, but, it's you know, a layperson might ask to be paid just because they need that money to kinda support themselves and their lives. Right? Like, I I have a paying scale that I say to people when they, and I tell them what it is, and I'll tell them to pay me what they think that they can pay me within that that scale. And then I say if it is a problem, just let me know, and, we'll see about that. Right? So so it really depends. It really depends on the person and kind of the availability and the possibilities they have. You know, you wouldn't want them to not be a spiritual director.

36:15Just can't because they can't they don't have the means to do it. But so that's why some some do charge and some don't. It really is a kind of a personal decision. Great. I hope that that has answered your question. So let's see. Mary, you're saying oh, you're asking a question here. What is it suggested pay scale? Gosh. I don't we we actually explained this in the program, and I don't remember what I suggest what is this suggested. I mean, for me, myself, like, you know, I've I've a good amount of experience in this, spiritual direction. So I usually I tell people anywhere between thirty five dollars and fifty dollars a session, And then to let me know if that's too much for them, and we can always talk about it and get to you wouldn't want them not to have spiritual direction.

37:22Right? But it's just a matter of the possibilities. Good. Anyone have any other questions before we sign off here? It's been good to see you all even if although it's virtually. So the next course is starting, right, May 21, and I'm set accept you know, I'm working with people to come into it. Would love to see some of you apply, because you have been on the, webinar tonight, here is a code that you can use to apply for free. Usually, the applications cost $25, so here's a code. I hope you can see it in the chat. If not, I'll read it out to you. It's SDC, spiritual direction certificate, reg register. So r e g and then free, f r e e. This allows you to, to do the application for free. Otherwise, it would cost you $25.

38:40So please reach out to me. Love to have follow-up conversations with any of you. Just, you know, you're all individuals and have different questions, so I'd love to be able to do that, with you all and just make sure you get your questions answered. You know, one thing is maybe the timing. Right? When you actually start it, you can start the program. The you know, the first two classes are really trying to help you to get to know yourself and to get to know the ministry of spiritual direction so that you can kinda finish a discernment of whether it's for you or not. So you don't have to, like, have the decision made up that this is the ministry for you before you go into the program. You can definitely use those first two classes in that way if that's needed.

39:27At the end of it, every class, you get a little certificate saying that you took that class and completed it. So that allows you to have something after each certificate each class. Okay? Anything else that you need from me? God bless you all, and thank you. I've enjoyed having you here. Oh, also, in general, how often does one meet with the spiritual director? Well, it's what I'd mentioned the other time. Usually, it's about on a monthly basis, but it's really according to what the person, wants, the one that's being directed. Thank you so much, all of you. God bless you, and praying for your discernment, all of you, as as as what is your next step in this. But we all know a lot of people need spiritual directors, so let's see what we can do about that.

40:23God bless you all. Take care.