Weekly Reflection
Thoughts evoked by Susan Phillips’ Book
Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction
By: Carol Ludwig, September 18, 2009
In “Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction,” Susan Phillips has written a book that takes us not only right into the spiritual direction session, but into the heart and soul of a spiritual director. Phillips’ descriptions of how she began her relationships with nine individuals, walked with them through many developments and then said goodbye to them is the closest thing to actually sitting in the room with her. And her candor and inclusion of the intimate details of the changes these relationships evoke within her own soul illustrate uniquely what it is to be a spiritual director.
As I read Susan’s book, I was struck by memories of various people with whom I walked over the past twenty years. Her language resonated with me. I recalled similarities in how lives unfold, and was struck by how a loving God invites us to be in such sacred spaces with others.
As I read the story of Ruth (renamed and shaped by Phillips to protect the woman’s real identity), I recalled something that almost derailed my own spiritual direction ministry. I was in my second or third year of sitting with people, listening to their sacred stories. A woman in her early fifties whom I had come to admire and respect deeply, and to whom I felt very close, was stricken by a cerebral aneurism. She was on the verge of several new developments in her professional and family life. And she was gone literally overnight. It was a great shock. I could scarcely contain my sense of loss through her wake and funeral. Learning to carry in my heart the mystery of her story was an important lesson for me. I realized then that we never know how long we will walk alongside someone else, which will be the last story we hear them tell. I understood deeply what an exquisite and sacred privilege it is to listen, even for one session, to another person -- what a joy and grace it is to be invited into another’s sacred space, and to share that space with the Spirit.
Susan divides the book into three main sections. These illustrate the unfolding I so often notice in the lives of those who come for spiritual direction. As God enters more fully into their lives and consciousness, it is as if they open like a flower to the light of the sun. Over the years, the blooms wither and fall, but there is always another springtime in the hearts of those who walk in the light of the Spirit.Susan divides the book into three main sections. These illustrate the unfolding I so often notice in the lives of those who come for spiritual direction. As God enters more fully into their lives and consciousness, it is as if they open like a flower to the light of the sun. Over the years, the blooms wither and fall, but there is always another springtime in the hearts of those who walk in the light of the Spirit.
As a spiritual director or one who listens to others in your ministry, you cannot but love the stories – and the way Susan tells them – that are contained in Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction, Harrisburg PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2008. And if you’d like to know more about Dr. Susan S. Phillips or her book, you can find a recording of our August 27, 2009, Spiritual World Net interview with her at:
Interview with Susan S. Phillips, PhD
May you be blessed in your ministry of listening to others!
