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How do I go about choosing a spiritual director?

Kevin asks:

How do we go about choosing a spiritual director? What are the characteristics that we should look for?

Dear Kevin,  

Your spiritual director is going to be able to give you much more pertinent advice since he knows you much better than I do. 

Let me just tell you a general principle I go by. If you are interested in the priesthood, have the opportunity of following the call, and a prudent advisor does not see anything missing that you have to work on before being accepted into the seminary, then it is time to move, putting aside the other distractions and possibilities (there will always be dozens of other good things to do, so don't let that be the reason you do not fo Dear Terry, 

How can you find a spiritual director? Usually it is a safe bet to look for a priest.  

He has to be someone you already trust, and , in your case, who loves and understands young people. Look for a priest whose preaching really reaches you (substance, but practical and helpful), or one who spends a lot of time hearing confessions, or a chaplain in a school who does a lot of spiritual work with the kids (preaching, teaching, retreats, confessions).  

What you want is someone prudent and practical, balanced himself, and who has knowledge - although he doesn't need to be a genius. It usually helps if he is energetic and generally tends to be optimistic, and not afraid of the truth.  

A priest like this will most probably be busy, but in all likelihood he will find the time to help you if you and your group really want to work. Oh, and he must live close enough for you all to be able to meet up easily.

(follow your vocation).  

For example: you mention that you don't feel a strong calling to marriage yet you get on well with women. But you are only finishing high school, and you are probably better off at this stage not feeling that strong call - because it often becomes strong precisely when there is somebody special in mind. So you can still be a normal teenager and not feel an overwhelming attraction to marriage at this stage of your life. But if a young person is unsure of his identity, and for that reason doesn't have the normal attraction to marriage, then this is something he would have to sort out before taking a step into the seminary.  

Another point to keep in mind is that if you go to college you will in all likelihood start running up debts that will afterwards make it more difficult for you to enter seminary.  

It would be a very good idea for you to look into some religious order you may have heard of, and get the ball rolling. Early Summer is a good time to do this, but make sure to enroll in college as well so as not to be caught in the fall without one or the other.

 

Type your question here to search the responses in the AnswerBase. If you don't find an answer, send your question to Fr Bannon online...
  
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