Couched within the Seminary milieu, the Spiritual Direction Graduate Certificate program draws on the disciplines of theology, counseling, scripture, social work, and spirituality to create a inter-disciplinary program that seeks to develop holistic spiritual directors.
Sharing a core of courses with the Formative Spirituality Graduate Certificate, the Spiritual Direction program embodies the charisms of ecumenism, diversity, and social action/justice, along with a focus on integrating academic rigor with rigors of the heart.
Formative Spirituality Program Co-Directors:
Marcella Kraybill-Greggo,
MSW, LSW
MAPC Clinical Director
Spiritual Director
Teaching Associate
Barbara Martell, MSEd, MA, MS
Spiritual Director Supervisor
Spiritual Director
Teaching Associate |
The Spiritual Direction Graduate Certificate at MTS offers contemplative training in the ministry of classical spiritual direction, in which a trained professional uses specific skills to listen with another to the direction that the Spirit is moving and calling in his or her life. “The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a person’s life, to get behind the façade which one presents to the world, and to bring out one’s inmost truth.” (Thomas Merton)
This 21 credit program is anchored in scripture, grounded in hospitality, incarnational in nature, and deeply formational. The program invites participants to go deeper and deeper into the life of the Spirit while preparing to facilitate this same attention to God in others. Students of the Spiritual Direction program will be required to give and receive spiritual direction during a three semester practicum, ensuring they will be well prepared to “tend the holy” in individual and group spiritual direction sessions.
Through completion of the program, students will acquire the theoretical foundation, practical skills and personal transformation necessary to companion others in their spiritual lives. Attending to the participant’s personal and communal experience of God, spiritual direction students will more fully develop a contemplative stance in their life, including an increased sensitivity to the movement of the Holy within themselves and their local and global communities.
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CREDITS |
| CORE COURSES |
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Prayer (SEPF741) |
2 |
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Group Spiritual Direction I (SEPF724) |
2 |
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Group Spiritual Direction II (SEPF725) |
1 |
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Discernment (SEPF742) |
1 |
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Retreat (SEPF729) |
1 |
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The Ignatian Exercises: Theology and Practice I (SEPF748) |
1 |
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The Ignatian Exercises: Theology and Practice II |
1 |
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Theory and Ethics of Spiritual Direction |
2 |
| PRACTICUM COURSES |
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Art and Practice of Spiritual Direction |
3 |
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Advanced Art and Practice of Spiritual Direction I |
2 |
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Advanced Art and Practice of Spiritual Direction II |
2 |
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Supervision for Training in Spiritual Direction I |
1 |
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Supervision for Training in Spiritual Direction II |
1 |
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Supervision for Training in Spiritual Direction III |
1 |
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Total |
21 |
Recommended Course Sequence
“Spiritual direction encourages an honest look at what grace illumines. It affirms that God is in our lives and hearts and can be encountered.” (Susan Phillips)
Individual spiritual direction supports the on-going spiritual and psychological growth that is needed to become a spiritual director. Students in the Spiritual Direction Graduate Certificate are required to receive monthly individual spiritual direction while they are enrolled in the program. Candidates for admission to the program who have not completed the one year of spiritual direction requirement may enroll in core courses while completing this requirement. |
   
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