Exploring Spiritual Direction

by Alan W. Jones

This new edition explores spiritual direction in the wider context of Christian friendship. Insisting on the need to undertake spiritual direction as an act of worship within a faith community, Jones goes on to look at the part that spiritual warfare, vulnerability, imagination, contemplation, and sacrifice all play in the work of spiritual guidance.

Genres: Spirituality

1 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Jeanette Beland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Jones, a skilled Spiritual Director and former Dean of Grace Cathedral, SF presents an excellent book on the practice of Spiritual Direction. A gift to the Church, Spiritual Direction provides an opportunity to view one's life from a perspective that includes the framework of spirituality and the presence of God (or whatever your spiritual proclivity is) in the movements of our lives.

Jones provides opportunities for reflection to the newcomer to the practice and deep considerations for those who are regular participants and also those honored to have the opportunity to be Directors.

It does not present itself as a "how to" manual, rather a discourse on the movements one can experience from either chair.

[Miska · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this book was like walking through deep water--not easy and quick--but it was worth it. It's chock full of truth and beauty. Alan Jones brings it.

A couple of favs:

"Christ's victory was and is decisive, but the battle, though won, still rages. Christ not only suffers for us, but also in us and through us. 'Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world,' wrote Pascal, and this is a dark truth hard for Christians to swallow."

"In the heart of God there is suffering love which draws us to himself, which calls us to engage with the world in creative suffering for the sake of its transformation. This is the divine Self-Emptying. . .The secret of human existence is this: We are to be dispossessed of all things (to be dispossessed of our ambition, of our prejudices, of all the things we have accumulated) in order that we may possess all things in the power of the Spirit."

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Jones remains one of the best interpeters of an honest, practical, revolutionary, and orthodox Christian spirituality. This book focused on spiritual direction, but it touched on so many other areas. Jones has an uncanny way of writing that makes you feel as if you're listening in on a conversation between him and God. In this book, he clearly communicated the essence and necessity of spiritual direction, centered on the notion that one's true identity can only be found in communion with others and grounded in the fact that God's love is unconditional for all of us.