One of the evangelising tasks of the Diocesan Formation and Mission team is to encourage, signpost and build opportunities for people who are interested to develop their own spirituality. As Pope Francis points out, you can’t evangelise others unless your own heart is evangelised. In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he says:
“Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”
Our encounter with Jesus Christ fuels our baptismal vocation.
“That commitment to service and witness is the Church’s mission to which equally, ordained and lay, are co-responsible in their own particular and vocational way.” Evangelii Gaudium
Spiritual Accompaniment is the intentional accompanying of someone on their faith journey. It always involves deep listening, with the ear of the heart, to their stories of how they are getting on in their pilgrim way through life – very much as we began to do with each other in the Synodal process in our parishes. It involves giving them a sacred space to think about their prayer life and relationship with God and accompanying them towards discernment of their life choices and direction. (Sometimes called Spiritual Direction, that term has fallen out of favour as sounding too prescriptive. Spiritual accompaniment, despite being a bit of a clumsy phrase, better captures that sense of ‘walking alongside’ and the story of the Road to Emmaus is offered as a way of understanding the task.)
The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into this ‘art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other. Ex, 3:5. Evangelii Gaudium, 169
“Genuine spiritual accompaniment always begins and flourishes in the context of service to the mission of evangelization” Evangelii Gaudium, 173
Seeking an accompanier and/or called to accompany
There are a number of individuals within the diocese who have undertaken specific training in the art of Spiritual Accompaniment and are able to offer this to others. It is also relatively easy nowadays to have a Spiritual Accompanier from anywhere in the world, on-line, although of course this is a somewhat different experience from a face to face encounter, as people are recognising as they relish the return to meeting real people after our collective experience of the electronic encounters during the pandemic.
Some people feel they are called to the ministry of spiritual accompaniment. As with any vocation, if this prompting is of the Holy Spirit, it needs to be nurtured and given due space and prayer for discernment, the process of teasing out and deciding if this is the way God is calling you at this time.
There are various opportunities within the Diocese to help you to discern, to develop your spirituality, to help others develop their spirituality and to help you to understand that aspect of your baptismal calling. Alongside your prayer life, the Eucharist and the hearing of the Word, you may want to go deeper.
Mission Week
There is an upcoming Mission Week being hosted by St Marie’s bit open to all, where you will be able to join with others to experience guided prayer, spiritual accompaniment, listening to others and being listened to.
Day of Reflection
Following this, there is a guided Day of Recollection to be held in the beautiful grounds of Mount St Mary’s College.
Listening and Accompaniment course
From September, training in Listening and Accompaniment will be offered for those who want to continue the journey towards discernment of a call to become Spiritual Accompaniers. This course will be a way-station for anyone wanting to undertake training in Spiritual Accompaniment. Look out for further details coming soon.
Spirituality Group
There is also a Spirituality Group who meet a couple of times a year to think about and plan opportunities for the People of God in the Hallam Diocese to develop their spiritual life. If this seems like something you are called to contribute to, please do get in touch with Formation and Mission to talk more about it.
Fionnuala Frances and Kevan Grady
Coordinators of Formation and Mission
