SPIRITUAL
DIRECTOR/DIRECTION/DIRECTEE
A Spiritual
Director is a person who helps another person to see God’s work in his/her own
life, to respond to God’s Graces, and to grow into Holiness.
Spiritual Direction encourages the person to
get closer to God the Father, to remain in Union
with God the Son, Jesus Christ, and to be open and listen to God the Holy
Spirit.
The person who seeks Spiritual Direction is a
man/woman who is going somewhere, who is beginning on a Spiritual Journey. He/she needs to talk
to someone on the way: “Who am I? What do I want? Where
am I going? Will I reach my goal? What are the
obstacles? Do I understand the Will of God? What is He trying to tell me? Help me find the way.”
(The person who seeks Spiritual Direction
needs to feel comfortable with the Spiritual Director in order to start Step
1.)
STEP 1: WHO AM I?
First meeting: We meet in the Chapel. We
discuss what you really need, whether you need to make only Step 1 (a General
Confession) or you need to make Step 1 and continue Spiritual Direction. The
most important thing in this meeting is for you to feel comfortable with the
priest. If you want to move on, then you need at least a week to prepare
yourself for a General Confession. What I mean by preparing yourself is to Pray
about it and to start thinking of the first aspect of your life which you need to
bring to Christ.
What is General Confession? It is to bring
your whole life to Christ in the Sacrament of
Confession/Reconciliation.
It is not to tell the priest, ‘I did this
three times, I did that four times’. Rather, it is to tell your personal story to Christ through the Sacrament and the
priest. This General Confession might be complete in one meeting or it may take three or four
meetings. Remember what Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are
burdened, and I will give you rest.” Where can
you find this Jesus? In the woods? Yes, you can find him there. In the Bible? Certainly you can find
Him there. In the Eucharist? Absolutely you can find Him there! But, will your
burdens be lifted up forever through these personal encounters with Jesus in the
woods, the Bible, or the Eucharist? Not at all. You need to encounter Jesus
Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession. There, you will
receive His Forgiveness. Jesus sent his disciples to the whole World saying,
‘Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are
retained."[John 20:23]. There, you will receive His Peace. When the woman
with hemorrhages approached Jesus in fear and trembling, fell down before Him
and confessed everything, telling Him the whole truth, He said to her,
"Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your
affliction."[Mark 5:34 ]
Jesus promised peace and rest for those who come to Him. ‘Come to me, all you
who are burdened, and I give you rest.’ [Matthew 11:28].
The difference between Psychological Therapy
& General Confession is that the former is very helpful but
cannot give the True Peace of heart nor
forgiveness, while the latter can give you the inner Peace and Forgiveness of Christ, which are the central
and most needed things of every human being.
Second meeting: You start the General
Confession beginning from Childhood to the present time. As I said above, it
may take several other meetings. In each meeting you just need to take your
time. Don’t worry about my time, it will be yours, because what is most
important to me is for you to encounter
Jesus, receive His healing and forgiveness, and move on your Spiritual
Journey to Heaven.
Third meeting: It will be my turn to give you
feedback showing you God’s Work in your Life, by helping in answering your most
important question: “Who am I?” At this time and throughout, you do not need to
worry! I am not here to judge or to offend. This meeting can be the most
beautiful and meaningful. You will receive a lot of insights concerning your
Life and Vocation. I will also tell you what to expect in your Spiritual
Journey. After the feedback, I give you an Absolution, which means that your
confession will be under the Seal of the Sacrament. Then, I will give you
around 9 days to think and pray about the next Step: “What do I want?”
STEP 2: WHAT DO I WANT?
Fourth meeting: We discuss together the
answers that you found for this question: “What do I want? What is my goal for
the next month? Where am I going?” You may have hundreds of answers: “I want
Holiness. I want to follow Christ. I want to get along with my wife. I want to
join that Community. I want to buy a new house... whatever...” Then, I will
help you to make priorities. We will evaluate the results of our first meetings.
We agree on how often it would be best to meet. In the next meetings, we can
either focus on fighting and overcoming old habits, removing fears or obstacles
on the way, and moving on; or we can focus on your Spiritual Meditations and
reactions in Prayer.
STEP 3: SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Fifth meeting and on: We discuss the goals,
the results, the reactions in Prayer, the obstacles, what is God telling you,
the fears, the shadows of the past, new insights, new callings, your responses.
All you need to do here, is to trust your experience. Trust that God is guiding
you, leading you, and preparing you for the mission. Strengthen your personal
relationship with God. Remember my friend that you are on a Spiritual Journey,
like a traveler. Sometimes it gets dark and sometimes it is clear. But do not
be afraid. The Lord is your shield and protection.
GENERAL
CONFESSION: Testimonies
FEEDBACK
& COMMENTS OF CHRISTIANS WHO EXPERIENCED GENERAL CONFESSION
L.Z. wrote:
My Thoughts about General Confession:
When
I heard a talk by Father Antonio, I was very drawn to the idea of a general
confession. He had spoken of a
non-Catholic prisoner to whom he ministered.
This man had made a general confession and as a result, had embraced the
Catholic faith, along with the rest of his family. He also told of a woman that made a general
confession. Through this, she had found
God right in her midst. She had been
looking for Him way up above, as if He could be found at the top of a very tall
building.
In
the days following the talk, I could not shake the idea of a general confession
from my mind. I believe God was calling
me to this. I wanted to confess in this way.
Not knowing where to reach Father Antonio directly, I called the Ave
Maria Foundation and through them, was able to obtain his e-mail address and we
communicated back and forth for a few days.
When he told me that a general confession was different from a
traditional confession because I could go back to day one and give my entire
life to Jesus through this means, I knew I must go. I had received permission from my husband to
visit Father Antonio for a couple of days.
The
first day Father met with me, he walked me through all the phases of my life,
from birth through the present. Many tears were shed. But his kindness and love
were a great comfort. Although I had
already confessed these sins in previous confessions, I felt like this
confession was “whole and completely from the heart.” Some of my previous confessions had been
before I had had my true conversion to a life devoted to Jesus. Even though I had sincerely confessed the
sins previously, this time I was aware of the deep hurt my sins had caused
Jesus, and I wanted to again fall into His arms and tell Him I was so sorry. I wanted to cry at His feet; to wash His feet
with my tears of repentance. And this is
what I did.
The
next day we met again. Father Antonio
had made a timeline of my life and had outlined the path my sins had
taken. He highlighted the time of my
conversion and we discussed where I was headed from there. He was very loving and encouraging. When I received absolution from Jesus,
through the hands of this holy priest, I felt as if I had been relieved of the
great weight of decades of sin that kept me back from becoming truly one with
Jesus. I now could move forward without
being dragged back by those ugly sins.
They were no longer there anymore.
It
has been one year since my general confession.
As a result, I feel that I have made great strides in my quest for
holiness. My prayer life is more
fruitful. As I prepare for my frequent
confessions, I am more aware of the impact my sins have on Christ. I see how even the smallest of my sins
inflicts great agony on Him as He awaits His persecutors in the Garden of
Gethsemane, since with God there is no time.
My sins He bears as He receives the painful blows as the soldiers whip
and beat Him at Pilate’s command. My
sins cause heartbreak in His blessed mother, as she watches Him trudge by on
the road to Calvary . And my sins nail Him to the cross. Yes, I partake in His suffering and death on
the cross. I, too, am there.
The
general confession freed me to understand that through His unfathomable mercy,
He awaits me each and every moment. He
beckons me to come and be with Him. He
wants me to invite Him in, even if I am not a flawless receptacle. He expects not perfection from me, but only
an honest desire for repentance.
Over
and over again I am the prodigal son. I
come home to Him in the sacrament of penance, and He is always watching and
waiting; hoping to catch sight of me coming down the road. When He catches sight of me, He is
overjoyed. He throws a big party and
puts rings on my fingers. He clothes me
with a new robe and kills the fattened calf.
I fall into His arms. There I am
home, in His warm and loving embrace. My
God has forgiven me.
General Confession was a tremendous gift to my
spiritual life. My husband, Tom, had died many years ago in a sudden tragic car
accident. Though I thought I had forgiven him for leaving me suddenly with four
small children, there was still lingering fear, resentment, anger, and a
hardness of heart.
After General Confession, when Fr. Antonio
asked me, “Do you forgive your husband for leaving you?” I said, “Yes” and “I
forgive, God, too!” After that point, a burden was lifted off of me. I became
lighter. I was able to share with my children the good in our past lives and
our shared love. The problems of alcoholism, depression, and epilepsy began to
fade and a calmness settled over me. Also my prayer life improved and I was
able to ask Tom to intercede for our children and family in a deeper
spiritually united manner. The things that had been hidden to me were swept
into the light and then out the door!
K.M.
wrote:
"Never
having heard about General Confession, I wasn't sure what it meant until I
began to experience it with my new confessor. Before I met him, I was
experiencing a complete blockade in my spiritual, emotional, and intellectual
life. It seemed as though I were locked inside a small concrete cell with no
windows. All of Christ's love for me in the Church had become only an
intellectual assent. I felt dead to all feeling and will and did not have the
go-power to understand or escape my prison, even with the sacraments of the
Church and other spiritual practices and reading. I recognized danger only
after realizing that I no longer cared whether I went to Mass or not, or
whether I prayed or not. After we started General Confession, my confessor
listened to me with truly "divine patience." Without rushing me, over
a period of weeks he guided me into a graduated revelation of my entire life
history to him, choosing scriptural passages for me to reflect on to help illumine
my own understanding as well as his. Guided by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and doing his own written homework, he helped me over a period of time to
grapple with the overall picture of my life. Using those scripture passages, he
began to reveal to me an amazing parallel between the valleys and mountains of
my own life and those of the Israelites in their wanderings during the
centuries before Christ. Incredibly, I began to see that over the years, God
was leading me ever so slowly into my present vocation, and that His faithful
love had guided me unerringly through crucibles beyond my comprehension at the
time. This faithful and spirit-led priest was like a trail scout, leading me
out of a dark and barren place into the light of God's loving kindness again.
"Today, my life is moving forward in the grace and calling God has given
me. I could not say that every priest or spiritual director would necessarily
be effective in giving General Confession. But this priest, with whatever
combination he has been given of natural and supernatural gifts, was able to
gently set me free from an inner landscape of desolation. I am learning to
"make a capacity" for God's new life in Christ and am regularly in
the company of others on the same journey. May His Holy Name be praised."
G.M.
wrote:
I
had the great opportunity to experience general confession with Fr. Antonio and
since then my whole life has been put on the right track. The unimaginable
graces that have proceeded from it began continue into a most needed healing
and restoration.
Above
all, I am more reconciled with my Lord and with the people in my life who have
harmed me than I could have imagined or hoped for before this general
confession.
Part
of what was so liberating and healing about it was having someone simply give
me some quality time. I never had anyone in my whole life willing to sit with
me for the time it took and listen, let alone be a compassionate guide and
share God's insights with me. Finally to have absolution - over my whole life -
after giving so much thought and consideration to my entire history, has given
me the sense of complete forgiveness that I longed for with all my heart. I
highly recommend it to everyone.
B.C
wrote:
I
am writing concerning a general confession which I did with Fr. Antonio in
2003. I am 51, grew up in a large
Catholic family, and attended Catholic schools.
I have appreciated the value of regular confession my whole life,
although most of my confessions in recent years have been relatively short with
a long line of penitents waiting behind me, or a penance service. I experienced this general confession as a
powerful support and a source of hope and encouragement in my Christian life. First of all, I heard about Fr. Antonio and
general confession from a business associate.
My friend spoke to me about this priest who met with him for four
sessions taking two hours per session. I
could not remember a time when anyone, especially a priest, listened to me for
eight hours. Fr. listened very patiently
to all my struggles, joys and sorrows.
Then he responded to my story and expressed a number of ways that God
had been working in my life over the years.
This whole experience gave me tremendous hope that my sorrows were not
wasted, and that God loves me and is leading me. It helped me to grieve the losses I have
experienced. It also gave me confidence
and increased my resolve to listen to the Lord and to follow His will for my
life. General confession was a very
positive experience.
[I would] like to share a few thoughts on the
general confession that I did with you, and I am most happy to do so. It has
definitely served as one of the most helpful things I have done. I had a major
conversion experience in 1992 and have received the sacraments regularly since
then, both Eucharist and reconciliation. I had been serious in my walk with the
Lord. But the general confession was a gift that allowed me to grow closer to
the Him.
The
process was helpful each step of the way. In preparing for the general
confession, I spent several hours in reflection and prayer before we spoke. I
sketched out a timeline of significant events in my life, both in terms of sin
and of grace. The time with you telling my story was, I must admit, difficult
and painful, but you were most kind and helpful through this process! Although
everything we discussed I had confessed previously, there developed (with your
skillful help) several themes that ran through my life, areas of strength, of
profound weakness, of brokenness, of grace. I begin to feel that I was seeing
myself more clearly, and I could see how God had been patiently working with me
long before I knew Him at all. I experienced a very heightened sense of His
mercy, of healing, and it made me profoundly grateful. After my general
confession, I immediately felt like weight had been lifted from me, and I
really believe the grace allowed me to enter a new stage in my life with God.
You have helped me be more patient with my dryness, and I have more confidence
that God is working on me even though I may not feel Him doing so. (Your
counsel from Jesus’ parables and from his experiences with the Apostles was
most helpful here.) I also feel that I gained a better overall sense of where I
am on my journey toward the Lord, and what I could do to avail myself of His
grace.
The
Lord has been busy with me this year, and I am so much more aware that I am
being formed, not necessarily for “big things,” but for to know, love, and
serve Him better. I attribute my movement toward God to his grace, of course,
but it was delivered and magnified through the general confession.
Father
Antonio, I thank you so much for the generous gift of your priesthood and your
time. Please promote the practice of general confession to all who want to know
Jesus better, and to all who need healing (which I think is just about
everyone). As you know, I am a psychologist, and I know a wider spread use of
general confession would save many people a great deal of time and money in
counselor fees. A skilled confessor is a treasure who can not only give insight
and advise but can bring God’s grace to bear on our woundedness.
May
God bless you and all the work you are doing with such talent and enthusiasm.
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