Nurturing the Call: Spiritual Guidance Program offers both resources and experiential support for the ministry of spiritual direction or holy listening. At the heart of this program is the radical conviction that spiritual companionship is a form of prayer and that contemplative listening comes from being grounded in one’s relationship with God.
Program Components
Participants do much of the course work in their own communities, coming to the Baltimore / Washington area for in-person residencies during each program.
At-home work includes:
- Receiving and offering one-to-one spiritual guidance;
- Mutual support and accountability with a peer group;
- Reading of selected texts, including classics and specific topical material;
- Zoom Intensives;
- Several brief theme papers;
- Periodic reports to Shalem;
- Personal journal-keeping;
- A personal spiritual practice;
- Self-scheduled, solitary retreat days;
- A 6-12-page final paper.
Residency Topics
- Topical seminars (sampling follows):
- Classics of Christian spirituality
- The arts and spirituality
- Scripture and spiritual direction
- Discernment
- Group spiritual direction
- Social vision and the spiritual life
- Contemporary social contexts
- Spirituality in our time;
- Practicums in prayer and spiritual discipline;
- Individual interviews with staff;
- Guided, silent retreat time;
- Supervised peer groups, group processing, and reflection;
- Participant-led morning prayer.
Our desire is to foster a community of peers within a prayerful atmosphere. Frequent sessions on prayer will explore a broad range of prayer forms and issues, both theoretically and experientially.
A Certificate of Completion is awarded upon completion of all program requirements.
The Residencies will be held at Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center in Marriottsville, MD. You will have a private room with bathroom. The center and grounds have walking paths through woods and fields.