Meeting the Soul Where It Is: The Stages of Spiritual Direction

You cannot walk someone forward if you do not know where they are standing. In this short, continuing-education course, a Wall Street executive named Stephen Auth tells Fr. Charles Sikorsky the story of his twenty years in spiritual direction — a journey that began with a heart scare and a confession thirty years overdue, and unfolded under three very different priests. Reading his testimony alongside Catholic spiritual theology and the psychology of the helping relationship, the course draws out a working model of accompaniment: souls move through stages, the right guide changes over time, and the real direction belongs to the Holy Spirit. Learners finish able to recognize where a person is on the journey and to meet them there, rather than handing everyone the same formula.