ST. IRENAEUS
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
Individual Spiritual Direction
God has graced me with helpers in every stage of my spiritual journey, and the benefits have been immeasurable. I want to pass this on to others. It is a wonderfully delicious experience to have time set aside each month to sit in God’s presence with another person who listens with you for the movements of God in your life and asks Spirit-led questions so you can go deeper with him.
I ask for a donation of generosity of spirit that is open to God. As of January 2021, I am required as a Sustainable Faith Affiliate to charge for my services. After my expenses, I give to workers spreading the love of Christ and meeting crucial physical needs in third world countries.
A suggested donation is $50 per hour paid by check, PayPal, or Venmo (no credit cards). Ask me for the links.
How much do you charge?
It varies as the Spirit directs the time. It might start with Scripture, followed by silence and soaking in God’s presence, making that transition from the busy, disconnected world to connecting with God. You might bring something that you have been thinking about, or I might have an exercise that facilitates a deeper experience of God. In every session, I listen to God and your heart, asking questions that help you go “deeper still” into the movements of God in your life. The whole time, we are attuned to God’s voice together.
What happens in a spiritual direction hour?
WWW.CHARLIESATTGAST.COM
There was a discernible qualitative difference in the way participants described their relationship with Jesus Christ based on whether or not they had been through formal spiritual direction as a regular part of their spiritual development. They spoke more directly about their deep love for Jesus and communicated the deepest sense of relational connection with God as a real-time direct personal relationship.
THE AUTHOR GOES ON TO SAY:
1) Contemplative Practices
2) Formal Spiritual Direction
In a research study involving in-depth interviews with thriving Christian leaders in the United States, the majority of the participants had two things in common:
Why Spiritual Direction?
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Other services include:
Individuals: $50/hour
Group Supervision: $20 per person
Spiritual director supervision
$50/hour; $30/1/2-hour
PILATES/PERSONAL TRAINING/NUTRITION CONSULT
$50/hour
ENNEAGRAM TYPING INTERVIEW:
What is Ignatian Spiritual Direction?
I am available to direct individuals and groups either face-to-face or through the internet.
You can form your own group, or I can put you in a group. I need to know of your interest by August 1st for the 8-month version and November 1st for the 12-week version. I need to interview each group member. to evaluate their readiness for the Exercises.
In addition to meeting one-on-one with me, we gather a small group of three to four to meet monthly.
GROUPS:
1) Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL) – A 32-week journey from September to three weeks after Easter. I need to know of your interest by August 15th.
2) A 12-week condensed “highlights” version of the full Exercises. This would run from January to Easter of that year. I would need to know of your interest by November 1st.
1) Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL) – An 8-month journey that can start anytime or in September if you want to follow the liturgical year (so you are meditating on Jesus’ birth at Christmas and his Resurrection at Easter).
2) A 12-week condensed “highlights” version of the full Exercises.
Weekly or every other week spiritual direction meetings with a choice of two formats
INDIVIDUALS:
Direction through the Exercises is different in that it is more frequent and they are in response to what you are praying through in the Exercises at that time. I offer these to both individuals and groups:
The Spiritual Exercises are a series of meditations, prayers, and contemplations developed by Ignatius of Loyola that help you draw closer to God in your everyday moments and find freedom from anything that is hindering you from living a life of love for God and service to others. I LOVE companioning others through them because they have been so instrumental in my own life. Watch this short video I made to explain them: https://youtu.be/ZTaO4iirKzw
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As a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, I love helping people out of physical pain by teaching them great stretching and strengthening techniques. There is something so fulfilling about my students finding freedom from pain by moving the way God intended for them, unhindered and leading active and healthy lives. As soon as I learned better exercise techniques, I wanted to share them with anyone who would listen. They have been life-changing for me. After years bound up in pain, I am free. Now, I am passionate about helping others because I believe that movement heals.
I am also passionate about helping people exercise their spiritual muscles. We often have things that inhibit our spiritual movement, and the Spiritual Exercises are beneficial in identifying these things and working through them to spiritual freedom of movement. Since they have been so instrumental in my own life, I want to share them with anyone who desires a deeper relationship with God and to be free from anything that is hindering them in being all that God created them to be. I long for others to live their best life because I believe that spiritual movement heals.
For just as taking a walk, journeying on foot, and running are bodily exercises, so we call Spiritual Exercises every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and, after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation (good/health) of our soul. (SE 1)
About the Exercises
These days include learning the daily Prayer of Examen and looking at your “Blessed History,” considering God’s gift in creating you and evidence of his grace throughout your life.
Preparation Days
There are four “weeks.” They are not literal weeks but progressive phases of growth on a journey to spiritual freedom from things that hinder your walk with God to freedom for wholehearted commitment to God and kingdom service with him.
Progressive Path of the Exercises
You journey with Christ through his life from the Incarnation to the end of his public ministry, seeking an interior knowledge of Jesus, who became human for us, so that we might see him more clearly, love him more intensely, and follow him more closely. Also, you pray through four contemplations: The Call of the King, Two Standards, Three Types of Persons, and Three Degrees of Humility.
THE LIFE OF CHRIST
02.
You look at God’s gift in creation, the Foundation, the rebellion of humankind, and your rebellion. After understanding and appreciating God’s love throughout your life, you can look at your patterns of sinfulness encased in the “bubble wrap” of his love. Your identity is as a deeply loved child of God who sins rather than as a “sinner.”
THE BOUNDLESS LOVE OF GOD
01.
You pray through and rejoice in the Resurrection and do a final Contemplation to Attain the Love of God and realize Jesus is with you in the Kingdom work he is calling you to, releasing you into the world as a contemplative in action.
THE RESURRECTION AND CALL OF CHRIST
04.
You accompany Christ in his suffering from the Last Supper to the Cross.
THE PASSION OF CHRIST
