In our highly impersonal, technology-driven society, there exists a longing to connect to each other and to Christ. While the Catholic Church and religious orders customarily provide spiritual direction for the ordained and consecrated, today the lay faithful also increasingly turn to spiritual direction to grow closer to Christ, heal from spiritual wounds, and handle life’s demands.
In spiritual direction, those who seek deeper intimacy with God open their hearts to a spiritual director who travels with them on their spiritual journey. This becomes like the encounter of Jesus with the woman at the well, the return of the prodigal son, and the blind man Bartimaeus—in which each person encounters the Lord and experiences ongoing conversion.
The Franciscan University of Steubenville School of Spiritual Direction provides a way to elevate your soul through prayer so you can then help others encounter Jesus Christ and come into deeper intimacy with him.
Through class presentations, praying with Sacred Scripture, personal prayer, retreats, supervised skills practice, and other formation, you will grow in self-knowledge and knowledge of God and develop tools for your spiritual tool box so you can help directees achieve greater intimacy with God. Online videos from Franciscan University’s Catechetical Institute will help fill any gaps in your basic knowledge of theology, philosophy, Sacred Scripture, and other disciplines. You will also receive training in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
The certification program can be completed during the academic year in three consecutive years, or in a condensed two-week, three-summer program format.
