Shane is available as a spiritual director for adults seeking to deepen their relationship with God. While open to any who are looking for assistance, it should be understood that he operates out of the Catholic spiritual tradition.
His spiritual direction services are provided either at his home office or online. Fees are negotiable depending on an individual’s financial circumstances and will be set prior to commencement.
Before commencement an autobiographical template will need to be completed. See (link).
What is spiritual direction?
It was Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) who described the role of the spiritual director as that of showing us how to recognise God’s grace and will, how to be humble and patient, how to develop insight into our difficulties, and how to remove the main obstacles keeping us from becoming people of prayer. Put like that, spiritual direction is fairly straightforward.
Of course, it belies a lifetime of personal complexity as each of us learns what it means to go in search of the One who is both looking for us and holding us in being, while calling us beyond our propensity to act as if we are in fact the centre of our own personal universe. Each of us must go on a journey to become who we are being created to be, and to let go of the fabrications we have constructed about ourselves (and God) as we encounter the healing mercy of the God who is so much more than we can possibly imagine.
What to expect from this director
I believe the role of the spiritual director is to witness your journey and to provide guidance for as long as they usefully can. The person who comes for direction has the right to assume that the director has a theoretical and experiential understanding of the dynamics at play in the Christian spiritual life, while knowing that each person who comes along will have a unique history and circumstances that will impact on how those dynamics are played out.
The person seeking direction deserves to work with someone who has, at least to some degree, travelled before them on the road they are on. The director is to be a person of prayer, integrity, and commitment to their own journey of transformation in Christ.
However, the director is not there to answer every question the directee might have. After all, the spiritual life is less about finding the answers to the inevitable questions that arise for each of us than it is about allowing the genuine questions that come from God to be heard and explored. It is in following the question that each of us is called forward into spiritual maturity. The director holds the directee to what is true, irrespective of how unappealing or inconvenient it might be, while providing a safe space for them to encounter the grace they seek.
What spiritual direction is not
Spiritual direction is not counselling or therapy, and those in need of either should consult a relevant professional. Spiritual direction is not a permanent relationship and may be called to a close by either party with appropriate discernment and discussion.