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July 2025

July 09, 2025

Accepting the Easy Task

Not everything we do needs to be so hard. When you think about what God...

June 2022

June 28, 2022

Starting a Spiritual Direction Practice in 2022: A Step-by-Step Process by Laura Lies

For today's post, I'm delighted to feature guest Laura Ann Lies for this guide on...

October 2021

October 14, 2021

Discernment Challenge: How Do We Know It’s God?

One of the most prominent questions in spiritual direction and discernment is this: When I...

March 2021

March 15, 2021

Inclining our Ear Toward God: Listening As A Church

In a world full of solutions, opinions, and advice, listening is one of the...

October 2020

October 23, 2020

Are You OK?: A Few Thoughts on Life and Spiritual Direction

Two commonly heard phrases (or some variation) I have noticed on social media: "Are you...

August 2020

August 28, 2020

Defining Spiritual Direction: An Interview with Dr. Melissa Hofstetter

What exactly is spiritual direction? Shepherd Heart Ministry Consulting's Executive Director Dr. Melissa Hofstetter sat...

July 2020

July 22, 2020

Back To School Pandemic: Choosing Without Obvious Choices

Parents of school-aged children are currently facing the hardest discernment situation one can face: making...

February 2020

February 28, 2020

Daily Lent Prayer: Discernment Through Ignation Examen

Put simply, Lent is a Christian season during which we honor the sacrifice Jesus made...

October 2019

October 10, 2019

Sitting with a Choice: Discernment Through Ignatian Examen

Here’s a simple spiritual practice you can do when sitting with a choice you need...

March 2019

March 26, 2019

Making a Living off Spiritual Direction

So often I’m asked, “Can you make a living off spiritual direction?” The answer is...

October 2018

October 12, 2018

Sharing Wisdom in Discernment: We All Have Something To Offer

We’re taught to “put our heads together," to combine our collective wisdom, to solve problems...

May 2018

May 22, 2018

Wrestling with My Inner Donald Trump

Part of my task as a spiritual director these days is coming to terms with...

April 2018

April 02, 2018

Spiritual Direction Demystified

I can’t tell you how many times people have told me if they had only...

November 2017

November 01, 2017

Learning from our Reactions Along the Spiritual Path

There seems to be a universal pattern to life, including the spiritual path. Action →...

September 2017

September 25, 2017

Discernment in a Fake News World

To practice spiritual discernment—the process of making faithful choices—you must have as many facts as...

May 2017

May 22, 2017

Is Media Overload Dulling your Spirit?

Confession time. I’m addicted to refreshing my twitter feed. And the result is I’m on...

May 16, 2017

Who are we doing all this for? God-talk on The Leftovers

The urge to speak with God face to face and understand great mysteries is a thread...

May 01, 2017

What Clergy Need to Know about Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction is a clergyperson’s best friend. Deep listening and discernment enhance the life of...

April 2017

April 26, 2017

Spiritual Direction for the Resistance

A young minister colleague came to me last week and said, “we really need spiritual...

January 2017

January 20, 2017

How to Say Goodbye to your Spiritual Director

All relationships have a lifespan, and the relationship between a person and their spiritual director...

January 03, 2017

5 Ways Spiritual Direction Can Improve Your New Year

Have you included “getting spiritually grounded” on your list of goals for 2017? If so,...

December 2016

December 02, 2016

Discernment as a Visioning Tool

Many churches and faith based organizations do good work in the present but have difficulty...

October 2016

October 31, 2016

5 Spiritual Discernment Questions for the Undecided Voter

With only a few days left before the 2016 Presidential election there are still those...

October 03, 2016

Spiritual Direction and Election Anxiety

For highly sensitive people like me, news in the fall of a presidential election year...

August 2016

August 29, 2016

Spiritual Direction and the Clergy Person

We need healthy religious and spiritual leaders in our faith communities--bright, energetic ministers who embody...

August 08, 2016

Spiritual Direction and Young Adults

Young adulthood is full of adventure and options. So much so that many young adults...

August 01, 2016

Holding our Pain: A look at “The Gift of Hard Things” by Mark Yaconelli

This post is part of a roundtable discussion about the new book The Gift of...

March 2016

March 28, 2016

Spiritual Direction and the Medical Professional

Caring for people’s physical well-being can be highly rewarding and extremely stressful. Medical professionals may...

March 21, 2016

Spiritual Direction and the Specialized Minister

Chaplains, campus ministers, denominational leaders, pastoral counselors and spiritual directors are all ministers with a...

March 07, 2016

Spiritual Direction and the Retiree

Spiritual direction is especially helpful in times of great transition. One of the most common...

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