The Lenten Journey to Holiness
Following Jesus in Our Life Journey
“Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God”
Joel 2:13
Whether we are on the Lenten journey of the liturgical year, or we are going through a Lenten season of our life, Lent calls us to reassess our relationship with the Lord and move closer to Him, returning to Him with our whole heart.
Maria Brackett, Executive Director of Spiritual Direction Certificate Program at Divine Mercy University, recently explained in a webinar how the Lenten journey can be a profound time in our spiritual lives and how a spiritual director can help accompany us during these seasons of life.
Lent is often a time of purification and atonement, calling us to assess where we are with the Lord. We can use the liturgical season of Lent and the Lenten periods of life as a time of returning to the Lord in a deeper way.
This life Lenten journey to holiness can be a place where we are accompanied by a spiritual director.
Some ways a spiritual director can be helpful throughout our lives’ journeys is by accompanying us in our joys and in our sorrows; encouraging, supporting, and being present to us. Not only does the director help by being there for us, but also journeys with us as the Lord leads us through the different phases of our lives.
Ms. Brackett also shared wisdom from two Benedictine priests, Frs. Thomas Acklin and Boniface Hicks, OSB, quoting their book Spiritual Direction: A Guide for Sharing the Father’s Love.
They emphasized the beauty of spiritual direction as “an opportunity to open one’s heart totally to another person, sharing intimate memories and experiences, all the way to the foundation of one’s being: the relationship with God.”
It is precisely this sacred space that allows a directee to grow and flourish.
The Sacred Space of Spiritual Direction
Ms. Brackett explained that the spiritual director relationship has a particular place in our network of human relationships within the divine relationship.
Though the context is of spiritual direction is sacred, a space of walking with the Lord and deepening one’s relationship with Him, it is still a human relationship. It is one of human connectedness and contact. This relationship is meant to be secure, intimate, trusting and therefore healing because it helps us to be more vulnerable and known by an other. It is within this context that we find the support and encouragement to grow in our relationship with the Lord.
Images that help us understand the spiritual direction relationship
To explain this more concretely, Ms. Brackett gave several images from the Scripture to help make this more understandable.
The relationship between director and directee can look like the story of the Good Samaritan, especially during the Lenten periods of our life. If the directee is hurting, the director is there to stop along the way to help, doing what he or she can to guide the person to what they need.
Another image she used was Jesus on the Way of the Cross, and those who encountered the Lord, like Veronica or Simon of Cyrene, who met Jesus along the way, offering him help. The Lenten moments in our lives, when things are painful, are similar to when Christ is carrying the cross. Simon of Cyrene and Veronica are there to support and connect with him, offering Him that human contact and care. This is similar to the role of the spiritual director, who is there to support the directee in periods of pain and difficulty.
Importance of Spiritual Direction in the Lenten Journey
During the Lenten journey, whether it be the liturgical season or a Lenten period of life, spiritual direction allows one to face moments of pain or trial, interior or exterior, in a safe environment to better see the holy ground where the Lord is present. Allowing someone into those parts of our humanity also fosters trust in the Lord’s plan and unites us to the suffering Christ.
If you feel called to be a spiritual director, learn more about the The Spiritual Direction Certification Program at Divine Mercy University.
