Course XIV - Teaching 4: The Spiritual Director

On the Ascetic Road, particularly during the first times, a Spiritual Director must guide the soul through his proper path to reach the Mystical Union of the soul with God.
Undeniably there are extraordinary souls who count on an especial direction, whether from their ancestral subconscious or, as in some rare cases, directly from Masters who lead the mystical movement from the astral world.
Numa Pompilius in Rome, a Pythagorean king, was led by the Nymph Egeria, linked by spiritual love; and he never gave any law for his people without previous counsel of his beloved ethereal being.
Saint Catherine of Genoa never could have any Director. As soon as she tried to be under certain especial direction, something extraordinary occurred in her life and she had to leave this guide aside. But meanwhile, the very Master Jesus appeared daily to her and enlightened and led her continuously.
Even Helen Petrovna Blavatsky could not count on any spiritual guide on Earth, for the Masters were in direct communication with her and imparted their orders. This woman, who was so eccentric and obstinate against society orders, was entirely humble and meek before the will of those who guided her in the road from the hereafter.
So, if there are unusual souls led directly from above, most mystics with no visible guide, particularly the beginners, show a pitiful state in their ascent, if it may be called so. In fact, the majority of them wander from one place to another, from one exercise to another, and from one disappointment to another, and eventually they feel so confused and enmeshed in their thoughts that waste as much time to unlearn what they learnt as the time they spent to learn it. And even these people cannot be a quite ductile matter in good hands because their souls are like a cloth scribbled and tainted with wrong concepts and prejudices that are apparently almost indelible.
So the greatest bliss and the safest hope are to find a Spiritual Director to achieve the Divine Union.
Of course, this is a quite sensible matter; those words of Saint Therese of Jesus addressed to her nuns never shall be sufficiently praised: “Seek a pious man of letters as your Spiritual Director”.
The mission of leading the souls toward perfection is the worthiest mission on Earth; but this demands a particular vocation and to love the souls intensely. Just as an explorer wants to travel, a lavish man wants to spend money, a researcher only sees his own books and a mother only looks at her children, so the Spiritual Director only lives to conquer souls, to kindle the divine fire in them and to make this fire continuously burn.
Dom Bosco exclaimed: “I am thirsty of souls”, and Ramakrishna wept and sighed, claiming from the roof of his house: “Souls destined to me, come!”.
So, the Spiritual Director must have irresistible love for the souls, spontaneous and sympathetic communication to attract all of them treated by him, and application to the study keeping them united in the practice of prayer. Also he has to be adorned by all general virtues, but these virtues should not excel one another.
This spontaneous sympathy was the characteristic gift in Saint Francis of Sales, a great director of souls. A lady told about him when he left Paris: “Oh thief! He leaves and takes our hearts with him!”.
The one whose vision is one-sided sees only one aspect of the ascetic life and only practices certain virtues; he cannot be a good Spiritual Director because he should not be one flower but a bouquet containing different perfumed flowers.
Also he must be very tactful and not extremely sweet in order to overcome and lead the souls to their destination; he must have courtesy and diplomacy but with discipline, timely severity and careful contact with the soul entrusted to him. These gifts should accompany always the Spiritual Director like a man and his shadow.
Ignatius of Loyola would lend money to Francis Xavier when the latter would gamble away in order to become his friend and conquer his soul, such as he did later.
For a while Ramakrishna would often look for Vivekananda, but later he would throw him out without compassion.
Monsignor Berulle instructed Madame Acarie to attend to balls with her husband, be properly dressed and low-necked, as usual in those times, and dance and be attentive with everybody according to their rank and position, but she was bound to wear cilice under her gown.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s mood was surprisingly variable with Colonel Olcott, and passed almost suddenly from a quite fine courtesy to crudest severity in order to foster endurance in this brave man.
A characteristic gift in a good Spiritual Director is his discernment to know those people entrusted to him by different superiors, and when these persons are subject to him, he counts on an indisputable steadiness and authority to lead them through the most proper path; and particularly at difficult and crucial times he must have extraordinary power to tell: “Your destiny is such or such”.
Also he must have a personal realization of external and external practices on Mystical Asceticism: books, knowledge and references must be for him only a help.
Sometimes he loves so much the soul of his disciple that partially knows and experiences the way and works that this disciple has to experience.
The integral idea of a Spiritual Director’s work in a soul has to survive from the beginning to the end, without any variation, in such a way that the disciple is not subject to the mission of the Spiritual Director and the latter is not carried away by the characteristic mission of the disciple.
Once the Spiritual Director is chosen, the spiritual direction cannot be changed, there are intertwined currents between master and disciple that go beyond life, and just as the Director shoulders the ignorance of his disciple, so the latter assumes the responsibility for the material living of the former.
In certain cases direction can be changed but this advice ever comes from the very Director or is determined by an extraordinary event.
Affective relationships between Spiritual Director and disciple have to be extraordinarily pure; there must be mutual respect and absence of any excessive familiarity between them. The Director constantly sees the shining light of the spirit behind the shell of the disciple’s body. That is why he does not stagnate in the direction of the soul and, without any haste to pass his disciple from one state to another, raises him little by little, as he discovers the divine action within, remembering always the divine sentence: “Souls should be rather driven than dragged. The more you touch a rose the more quickly it withers”.
If there are mystics of different kinds, a good Spiritual Guide is indispensable in every case. There are three kinds of mystics: lonely, orderly and “weathercocks”.
Lonely mystics are men who abandoned the world, but live under the guide of a Spiritual Director and follow and respect him in everything.
Orderly mystics are men who besides their Spiritual Director whom they follow blindly, live with him at the same house and in the same monastery.
“Weathercocks” do not count on certain guide or Spiritual Guide, and are carried away by their instinct or by something that in their view is Divine inspiration.
Lonely mystics strictly obey their Spiritual Director, entirely surrendered to his will as to method of the exercise and internal discipline. Their faith is based on total indispensable trust in him for their realization.
When Saul falls to the earth by a light from heaven as he comes near Damascus, he asks, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”. And the Lord replies, “Go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. The Highest Spirit refuses to lead him from the beginning, but sends him to Ananias so that the experience of man may cooperate with the Divine Grace.
Orderly mystics, who live in community with the Spiritual Director, mainly prevail among Eastern people. A Hindu chela ought to live along with his Guru and has to follow him blindly. A blind obedience cleans a mind from any past prejudice and put the individual being in tune with Guru’s forces, making him fit for reach highest psychic and spiritual successes.
Indian chelas even meditate on the physical form of their Master and during their meditation imagine their Master being seated on the little heart chakra until their identification with him.
“Weathercocks”, who do not count on Spiritual Director, even may perish when they start a road that is unknown and full of dangers.