Doctrinal
God is the infinite divine being, one in being yet three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has revealed himself as the ‘One who is’, as truth and love, as creator of all that is, as the author of divine revelation, and as the source of salvation.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997. Paragraphs 198, 279.
Contemplative
A Divine Mystery lies hidden at the depth of our experiences. We long to encounter this Mystery and enter into communion with it. The journey of spiritual direction supports our growing in awareness of and communion with this Mystery
The word “God” is the metaphor for the infinity of the mystery the present moment manifests. And, inversely, at one and the same time, the concrete immediacy of the present moment is realized to be the manifestation of the unmanifested mystery of God. It is this unitive mystery of oneness with the divine with the concrete immediacy of the present moment that constitutes the heart of the contemplative way’s fulfillment in realizing this unity throughout all one’s life. *
* James Finley, Ph.D. Thomas Merton’s Path to the Palace of Nowhere. Session 1, Topic 3.
Personal
Jesus, the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity, reveals the fullness of God, and speaks of the Father in many and various ways. By extension, though not in the fullness like Jesus, each of us nevertheless participates in the incarnation in a personal way. Each of us reveals some aspect of God, and others come to have an experience of God through us. Conversely, when we refrain from revealing ourselves, or to the extent that we don’t reveal ourselves, we deprive others and ourselves of the experience of God that is meant to come uniquely through us as our participation in the incarnation. As such, attention to our experiences and our participation in our experiences helps deepen our awareness of God’s revelation taking place in our lives.
Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who motivates us to seek God and continue growing into the fullness of the life which has been gifted to us. Spiritual direction can help us discover how the Holy Spirit is guiding us, step by step, and providing us with the gifts and resources we need along our way.
