healing

On Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction welcomes one to explore, discover and share ways in which a person can recognize the endless presence of God within moments. This includes examining the ways one speaks to God, as well as connecting with messages unveiled in response to lingering questions.

A helpful way to understand what happens in spiritual direction is to imagine that there are “3 chairs” within a room: the companion (Spiritual Director) who listens, the one sharing (Directee) and the Holy Spirit who guides throughout the conversation. It is a place held for the one invited to feel a freedom to share in many forms, including honesty, vulnerability, healing and growth. Having trust and confidence in knowing that the Holy Spirit is guiding within the conversation makes this time different than cognitive or talk therapy. It is a place that incorporates the wholeness of being human: mind, body, spirit and all things of mysterious creation.

Spiritual direction continuously invites all feelings from the past and present to be understood as guiding “teachers” and welcomes the imagination to reflect on behalf of the future. Purpose within moments is not black or white. It is within the grey, the stirring of many different feelings, perceptions, ideas, experiences and more that is brought into conversation with God within life’s moments. Examples of questions that may be evoked during spiritual direction can include:

What is it that you yearn for?
Can you describe what God looks like to you?
What is your prayerful time like?
What feelings arise within you when you are in a specific moment?
Where do you go for comfort and peace when you are feeling emotionally challenged?

Our connection with God is consistent — even in times that we may not be open to recognizing it. Experiences shift ongoing conversations into stages of change and growth. Each life creates ongoing opportunities for us to know God. Life can feel like a constant dance – the styles of movement shift and the rhythm invites moments that provoke different direction and intuitive feelings. These feelings guide us into a moment to rest and converse with God. We may get stuck in a moment or stage until we realize the best way to respond or react. Spiritual direction empowers one into a deeper contemplative and discerning practice which holds the partnership with God at the center. The director’s role is to guide directees through their discoveries.

Spiritual direction also welcomes the inner being of one to share and connect with the visible, as well as the invisible. A person’s contemplative moments may grow in respect to being recognized as a place for continued dialogue with God. The mysteries stretch to become timely revelations of healing and discovery paired with a new pattern of seeking. This way of seeing and experiencing takes much practice and patience as God unfolds revelations.

One of the greatest gifts I have received during my ongoing contemplative practices partnered with spiritual direction is the understanding that each one of us is uniquely nurtured and transformed. That a life journey is filled with personalized experiences that molds one to have deep longings and wounds that are continuously surfacing to guide through growth and transformation and to have a confidence to no longer seek answers through others in regards to a soul’s longing, rather to respect her or his individual invitations and gifts as time unfolds through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Franciscan friar and spiritual writer Richard Rohr shares, “One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway.” The underlying, ancient wisdoms of the Bible continue to encourage modern humanity to seek and discover the grace, love and beauty of a God yearning for open connection with creation in all forms.

In what ways are you currently practicing in order to discover how God’s presence is consistently with you during celebrations and challenges and within moments along your journey, whether past, present or in dreams for your future? Will you consider spiritual direction to accompany you along your mysterious invitations?

Mary Hally enjoys accompanying individuals of all ages to build an inner confidence through their own creative ways of connecting and discovering invitations from God within their days. Her own experiences of encountering the Holy in our midst inform Mary’s gift for helping others recognize the possibility of divine presence both in beauty and in life’s challenges. She completed the two-year Spiritual Direction Practicum program at Mercy by the Sea.

On Mandalas

The mandala is a circular design which represents wholeness, the Universe or the Self. It has been used as a symbol for prayer, healing and enlightenment since ancient times, in spiritual and cultural traditions around the world. Navajo sacred healing rituals, Buddhist sand mandalas for peace, Hindu mandalas drawn to center a woman for the day, and labyrinths walked by Christian pilgrims for insight are some of the ways mandalas have been used throughout history.

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, pioneered the use of the mandala to explore the unconscious aspects of his own and his patients’ lives. He wrote, “I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala, which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time. With the help of these drawings I could observe my psychic transformations from day to day.” He concluded that the mandala is a universal archetype, a guide that taps into the unconscious, leading a person along the path toward wholeness.

It is in this sense that I began drawing mandalas in 2001. During a stressful time of transition in my life, I followed the suggestion to “draw my feelings” each day. Having had no formal art training, I traced around a dinner plate and drew my feelings intuitively, without thinking what the outcome should be. Instead of choosing a color intentionally, I let colors “choose me.” When I contemplated what then appeared on paper, I allowed the image to connect with events in my inner and outer life. I noticed that, over time, I gained insight into my life circumstances; I became more aware of my feelings by naming them; and I learned to be less judgmental, more accepting and more trusting of my inner process.

Over the years, this habit of “drawing my feelings” became a prayer practice, which continues to the present. I journal to get in touch with my inner state, identify current challenges, pray about them, create the mandala and conclude by writing the prayer around the image. This prayer often stays with me throughout the day.

Rose Amodeo Petronellad, a spiritual director, artist and retired minister in the United Church of Christ, will be showing a selection of her mandalas and other works in the Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery beginning June 1. A reception where you can meet the artist, view the artwork and enjoy refreshments will be held on Sunday, June 2, from 2-4 p.m.

In addition to her artistic work, Rose recently published Honoring the Soul: Mandalas for Inspiration and Insight, available at lulu.com. She grew up in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and lives in Middletown, Connecticut with her husband.

What's Been Happening at Mercy by the Sea

Dear Mercy Family,

I write to give you the good news of Mercy by the Sea from our past year and to thank you for your steadfast support. Every year I witness the transformational power of our mission and ministry.

Print and Online Spiritual Resources

Many of you who come to Mercy by the Sea see us as a unique, contemplative, restorative and transformative resource that helps you along your spiritual journey. But there are many other spiritual resources that can inspire you in between your visits. Here is a list of old favorites, like The Sun and Tikkun, and some valuable new finds like Anchor magazine and Relief. Check them out and see which one or ones speak to your heart.

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