Spiritual Friends

September 25, 2025 joanna seibert

Gerald May III: Spiritual Friends

Installation of Grace Chapter Daughters of the King Saint Mark’s Little Rock

“At the deepest level of our hearts, we are all aching for each other and for the same eternally loving One who calls us. It would be well, I think, if we could acknowledge this more often to one another.”—Gerald G. May in Will and Spirit (HarperOne, 1982), p. 321.

In Will and Spirit, Gerald May writes that we should not undertake the spiritual journey alone, regardless of our traditions. May quotes Kenneth Leech, who opens his book about spiritual direction, Soul Friend (Harper & Row, 1980), with the Celtic saying: “Anyone without a soul friend is a body without a head.” A spiritual friend or guide does not give directions, but one who points directions—someone who knows something of the terrain from having traveled some of it. Such a guide can say, “I think there may be trouble over there; perhaps try this way.”

Professional training or qualifications of a director, counselor, or friend are not nearly as important as fundamental qualities of primary positive intent, humility (not presuming to know more than one knows), and willingness (commitment to traveling a rough road and allowing the guidance to come from God rather than trying to engineer it); and responding simply and directly to the needs of others as they are presented.

May cautions us that if we expect to be spiritual friends by learning discernment techniques and using them on other people, the outcome will be a blind sales pitch or slightly pastoralized psychotherapy. He describes psychology as seeking to help a person solve the problems of living, while spiritual direction deepens the Question of life itself.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Interconnection of Prayer and Service

September 24, 2025 joanna seibert

Nouwen: The Interconnection of Prayer and Service

“Life becomes an unbearable burden whenever we lose touch with the presence of a loving Savior and see only hunger to be alleviated, injustice to be addressed, violence to overcome, wars to be stopped, and loneliness to be removed. All these are critical issues, and Christians must try to solve them; however, when our concern no longer flows from our personal encounter with the living Christ, we feel an oppressive weight.

Jesus in the House and Mary and Martha Erasmus Quellinus

Here arises a key question: “Can we see Christ in the world?” The answer is, “No, we cannot see Christ in the world, but only the Christ in us can see Christ in the world.” This means that through prayer the Christ within us opens our eyes to the Christ among us.”—Henri Nouwen in The Road to Peace (Orbis Books 1998).

Nouwen reminds us that prayer and service can never be seen as conflicting or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless piety, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.

When we pray for others, we stand in the presence of God for them, just as Christ does for us. Praying for others takes us out of our heads and places the problems of the world in the Presence of God. Nouwen reminds us that when we pray for the endless needs of the world, our soul expands and brings them to the Presence of God.

But we cannot embrace the world, but God can.

When we connect to God’s Presence, we are no longer victims of the fear, hatred, and violence that rule the world. In God’s Presence, we connect to the Christ within us, and we see the Christ in others. Our hearts of stone break, and we feel compassion as we pray for others. Our prayers are energy, pulses of Hope that connect to God’s greater energy that surrounds us.

We are filling the water pots with water to the brim. The wine-making is God’s. We remove the stone. “Lazarus, come forth,” belongs to God. We are the dry bones. Putting on flesh and breathing are God’s.

We are called to prayer and service together, not one or the other.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com

Feng Shui, Being in Relationship with the World Around Us

September 23, 2025 joanna seibert

Schmidt: Feng Shui, The Order God Intended For Our Lives

Guest Writer Frederick Schmidt

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.”—Alice Walker.

Not everyone who identifies as spiritual necessarily considers that a more significant responsibility. Most of us are taught that spirituality is about getting God involved in our lives, fixing our problems, comforting us when we are down, and showing us the way. Our culture has taught us to think that way, and some spiritualities are devoted to that understanding of the spiritual life.

Now, at one level, I’m all for God being involved in my life. I don’t relish having problems. When God seems particularly close, I enjoy the palpable sense of peace that goes along with such moments, and I never mind knowing what to do next. But, at the same time, I don’t think that is the purpose of the spiritual life.

We have a more significant responsibility. Feng shui doesn’t quite capture that responsibility, but it hints at a concept found in the Torah, the prophets, and the teaching of Jesus—pretty much in the entire Bible. It’s called the righteousness of God—the order God intended, to put it in more accessible terms. Put another way, we are called into partnership with Jesus to care about how the world around us does or does not conform to God’s design.

Contributing to the righteousness of God won’t be as easy as rearranging the furniture in a room. Doing that in our world is a much bigger job. Not everyone will agree with God’s opinion on where the furniture should go. We won’t even agree among ourselves on where it should be all the time. And on this side of eternity, the furniture will never be where all of it should be.

But we can witness to making God’s righteousness a reality. We can make personal choices and relate to one another in ways that reflect the presence of God in our lives. Those may not be sizeable pieces of furniture, but it’s an excellent place to start.

Frederick Schmidt

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/