The Restory Retreat Centre

What is Spiritual Direction? Connected Transformation and practicalities In describing the fundamental aspects of spiritual direction, I would like to focus on two other issues that I feel require further attention. §   The first is what I would call spiritual direction as connectedness, or seeing the bigger picture. Carolyn Gratton explored this best in her book The Art of Spiritual Guidance. Through our busy, complex lives we somehow lost touch with life’s underlying connecting fabric. We feel fragmented, scattered, adrift. We are left with a sense of confusion and we are unable to see the wood for the trees. How do we make sense of it all? “Between the ambiguity and messiness of our everyday lives and the invisible but energizing Mystery of holy Otherness that gifts our lives with ultimate meaning, there is an intrinsic and transcendent connection. Spiritual guidance can help us grow in awareness of that connection and that ultimate meaning.” She illustrates this...

What is Spiritual Direction? Spiritual direction is   “.. help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship.” (William A. Barry and William J. Connolly,  The Practice of Spiritual Direction ) §   Spiritual direction focuses on religious experience.  It is concerned with a person’s actual experience of a relationship with God. §   Spiritual direction is about a relationship.  The religious experience is not isolated, nor does it consist of extraordinary events. It is what happens in an ongoing relationship between the person and God. Most often this is a relationship that is experienced in prayer. §   Spiritual direction is a relationship that is going somewhere. God is leading the person to deeper faith and more generous...

Exploring the Enneagram through Art. (Continued) Also called the Individualist, the Signature trait   of this personality is their belief that they are fundamentally different from others. They often see themselves as uniquely talented, but also inherently flawed or disadvantaged. They grow to believe that they are special but are not understood and stand apart from others. They feel uncertain about who they really are and desire to find themselves and their significance and to create an identity out of their inner experience. This presents a problem as their emotions keep shifting and Fours often create a fantasy self to counter this. They struggle with envy because everyone else seems to be or have what the Four feels they lack. Connecting with their Life essence by staying present to themselves and committing themselves to stay engaged with reality through principles and actions that are not embedded in their moods and emotions, they are able to reach into the deepe...

Lack of direction It’s been a long time now that I wanted to write something about spiritual direction. I think to a degree I procrastinated because in doing so I have to tell something about myself. And that’s not always easy. It also has to be done in quick broad strokes in order not to bore you with too much detail. That always carries with it the danger of generalisations and simplifications. I’ll try my utmost to avoid that. I came to spiritual direction via a long detour. I grew up during the years of Apartheid in a Protestant tradition. A deep mistrust in anything Catholic manifested itself in the warning against Die Roomse Gevaar (The Roman Catholic Danger), which also became part of my frame of reference. When I decided at a very young age to become a minister of religion, it was within that context. Realising from the outset of my studies that I wanted to support and help people on a deep personal level, Counselling remained my main subject throughou...

Exploring the Enneagram through art. (continued) Threes achieve great success in their lives and are looked up to as role models. They believe in developing their talents and capabilities to reach their full potential.  As children however, Threes were not valued for themselves, but for being and doing certain things extremely well. A pattern is set whereby Threes live with the belief that you are good or okay if you are successful and others think well of you because of your achievements and performance.  To mask their insecurities about their worth, Threes tend to present themselves in a way that does not reflect their authentic self, but rather a version of themselves that they feel are called for in each situation to achieve success. In a sense, they wear "masks" to ensure that they will be accepted. Their Life essence  emerges when Threes shift their centre of gravity from outside themselves to inside by  allowing their hearts ...

Wanneer iemand baie na aan jou doodgaan, begin mens probleme met taal ontwikkel. Praat jy in die hede van daardie persoon, of skakel jy oor na die verlede tyd? Sê ek byvoorbeeld my ma het ‘n geel bak gehad? Die bak is nog hier in die huis, maar my ma is nie. Wie bepaal die tydsgebruik, die besitter of die besitting? Toe my ma nog geleef het was dit haar bak. Niemand het dit bevraagteken of die feit betwis nie. My ma het dus ‘n geel bak gehad. Maar wanneer ek nou van die bak praat, hoe maak ek dan? Na haar dood het die bak op geen stadium van eienaar verwissel nie. Die breekware staan nog net so in die kaste. Ek sou daarom kon sê my ma het ‘n geel bak. Sou iemand egter meer van die bak by haar wou weet, aangesien my taalgebruik baie vatbaar vir so ‘n onskuldige versoek kon wees, waarheen verwys ek hulle? Nou systap ek die probleem waarvoor ek nie ‘n bevredigende oplossing het nie deur te praat van Ma se bak. Ma het ‘n pragtige blompot gehad. Albei in die verlede tyd. ‘n Grote ...

Exploring the Enneagram through Art (continued) The Signature of this personality is their genuine generosity and helpfulness. The unconscious childhood message they received however, was that it isn’t good to have your own needs. They therefore have insecurities about others’ affections for them and reach out to others in an attempt to be needed and loved. This may lead to Twos losing touch with their own needs and hurts. They may even believe that they themselves don’t need support and take great pride in this.This pride blinds them to their own needs which get neglected in favour of the feeling of well-being they experience from helping others. The result in the long run may be physical, emotional and even financial burn-out. They connect with their own Life essence when they learn to nurture themselves and look after their own needs. Two’s come to the realization that love cannot be earned.They become aware of unconditional love which is always present and always availabl...

Exploring the Enneagram through Art (continued) I want to explain the different types as they are identified in the Enneagram of Personality by using images of the sculptures we made for our exhibition, Your Signature, My Life.  Our personalities are formed in our attempts to protect and defend our essential being, or essence. By adopting coping mechanisms in childhood, we survive the physical world, but get cut off from our essential nature. In each sculpture, we portrayed the personality type as the imprint or Signature that has been stamped onto us. The essence, or Life , which has to be allowed to surface in order for us to fully realize ourselves, is shown to be present always, but nuanced and even hidden. By exploring the Enneagram in this way it helps us to get insight into the deeper meaning of our life that we not always have access to through cognitive thinking alone. In The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson, they "have named personalit...