Every meeting, Linda Oyer’s spiritual director would ask, “So where have you seen God recently?”
In order to avoid the embarrassment of not remembering how God worked in her life throughout her weeks, Oyer would think intentionally about how she saw God. That way, her answers would be fresh.
“[Meeting with a spiritual director] made me pay attention and stay more attuned in order to discern God’s work,” said Oyer, a mission worker in France with Mennonite Mission Network.
When Louis Schweitzer, a friend and ethics professor at a seminary in France, and Oyer talked about how their spiritual directors helped them on their faith walk, Schweitzer suggested Oyer collaborate with him to create a spiritual director training program.
In 2002, they began a three-year training course for spiritual directors, which is now named Compagnons de Route (Companions on the Way). During the course, participants learn about the spirituality of major figures in church history, and how to walk with someone through various phases of spiritual life. About 200 students have gone through the course, which is offered at three locations.
They started the course in order to fill the hunger they saw in people to go deeper with their faith and live more in line with their convictions.
“People don’t want to just go through the motions anymore,” said Oyer. “I see spiritual direction as part of the larger church. It’s a ministry we can do with one another. I accompany 10 people, and I’m accompanied by a Carmelite nun. Each person I accompany, in turn accompanies three or four people, and it fans out.”
As part of the course, each person must choose a spiritual director, who is typically a more experienced Christian. Their spiritual directors challenge and encourage them in their faith journey.
“It’s not about teaching [people lessons from the Bible], but about walking with them as they learn to incarnate Christ’s life,” said Oyer.
Oyer is heartened by the impact that spiritual direction has on people’s lives. She told the story of a woman who was “beaming” one day when they got together for a chat.
The woman shared that her daughter, who for many years had been distant from the family and from God, had called and invited her mother and father to her baptism. The mother was overjoyed at her daughter’s announcement, something that the daughter had been journeying toward without telling her parents.
The daughter mentioned that she had been befriended by a woman who lived in her town and, through their friendship, the daughter journeyed back to God. As the mother told the story, Oyer was thrilled when she realized that the woman who walked with the daughter toward God was a former student in the spiritual direction course.
“It’s a joy to see people move, change, and become more open to God’s work in their lives [as they go through the course],” said Oyer. “I’m glad to see spiritual direction be as positive for others as it is for me.”
