The Art of Spiritual Direction: A Guide to Ignatian Practice

by Jos Moons

This is a concrete, practical book about spiritual accompaniment. While there may be no shortage of books on this matter, most of these books remain somewhat abstract in the way they highlight the beauty of this ministry and point out its pitfalls. This book instead resembles a toolbox with a user’s manual.In six chapters, the author presents the following ‘there is no rush’, ‘listening by following’, ‘searching for the soul’, ‘going deeper’, ‘evaluating’, and ‘accompanying towards spiritual maturity’. By means of examples and case studies, he demonstrates how these tools may be used to good effect. Two introductory chapters discuss the choice for a practice-oriented book and the core values of an Ignatian approach to spiritual accompaniment. A final chapter specifically focuses on vocational discernment.New spiritual directors can learn from this book the tricks of the trade and experienced directors can be encouraged to reflect upon their own practice. Although it is written from a Roman Catholic, Jesuit background, this book may be used in a wider variety of Christian contexts.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2020

Reviews

[Brian Hohmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Moons provides a quite good and helpful outline to the practical work of spiritual direction, I regret the actual methods and guidance demonstrated in his practical examples and dialogues. From the bias of my own approach, I find his overly fond of reflective statements, peculiarly reluctant to ask open-ended questions, and in the final estimation fairly unnatural. And unfortunately, while Moons is offering to provide "A Guide to Ignatian Practice," some of the small rules that seem to govern his model spiritual direction (sometimes acknowledged, sometimes not) seem to enter in unexamined and owing more to the influence of 20th-century schools of humanist counseling than to the distinctly Ignatian values he offers at the beginning.