One of the spiritual directors whose writings have helped me is Reginald Somerset Ward, an Anglican spiritual director who died when I was one. Here he describes the task of spiritual direction, which he here calls ?the physician of souls.? (The language is male as this was written nearly 60 years ago. FYI). ?The task […]
Suffering & Sacrifice
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Joy Mosbarger, not Gem Fadling as previously posted. During my college and young adult years, there were numerous authors and speakers who had a significant impact on my life. One whose influence was most noteworthy was Elisabeth Elliot. A few weeks ago, on June 15, 2015, Elisabeth Elliot […]
Deep Roots, Fresh Fruit
Recently I was doing something I?ve done hundreds of times over the last 25 years?listening to retreatants share their stories of encounter with God after they?ve engaged in what we call ?EPC? (extended personal communion with God). It?s our way of talking about the practice of solitude, silence and prayer. The power of EPC as […]
The Heart of True Surrender
Below is a paragraph from Gerald May?s Care of Mind/Care of Spirit about ?true surrender.? How often do we offer what we think is surrender when it is really a thin guise for something a little more selfish? May we discover that every door of invited surrender, no matter how scary it may look, is […]
Relational Delegation
Delegation is central to effective leadership. Most leaders would agree. So, why is it so hard to do well? Leaders struggle with delegating for a variety of practical reasons: We fear we won?t have enough time to explain the task. We fear giving up control. We fear we won?t get any of the credit. We […]
The Difference Between a Conference and a Retreat
One of the elements of my job that I most enjoy is facilitating retreats, especially for leadership teams or groups of Christian leaders. I?ve attended many gathering that were called retreats. If there is no space for rest, reflection, or prayer in the schedule, but rather meeting after exciting meeting of teaching, singing, practical ideas […]
Unhurried Work
What a gift to find a good word from one of my favorite literary spiritual directors that speaks to my life theme of unhurry. Von H?gel is talking about his habit of doing just one thing at a time. He would not have been a fan of ?multi-tasking?: ?And here there is also the […]
