Recognizing as Spiritual Directors that the journey toward spiritual growth and maturity is a lifelong endeavor, a strong graduate community of peers are nurtured and promoted on an ongoing basis to explore the questions, issues and personal growth challenges that accompany the work of good spiritual direction:
Development of an implementation plan for well-attended and regularly scheduled Alumni Journey Group meetings for spiritual and professional development and peer support.
Create an atmosphere of celebration from the welcoming of new cohorts through graduation that encourages on-going participation by developing joyful events.
Explore opportunities for ISD Community reunions such as: annual retreats, Mass with potlucks, and parish-hosted meetings that promote the ISD.
Commission of Ministries for the ISD
ISD Vision Holy Spirit inspired ministry leadership where believers grow into the fullness of maturity in Jesus Christ through spiritual direction. (Speaking the truth in love, we grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:15)
ISD Mission Our mission, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is to form and equip Christian leaders in Spiritual Direction that they might accompany others in their transforming relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. (“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:19a)
ISD Values
We value the universal call to holiness through the Holy Spirit to inspire, invite and accompany the Christian on their journey toward spiritual growth and maturity. (“Therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me.” 1Corinthians 4:16)
We value Lectio Divina as a way to encounter Jesus Christ and his Sacred Heart. (“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training righteousness”, 2 Timothy 3:16)
We value Christian spirituality as rooted in the Magisterium and informed by the historical wisdom of the saints such as St. Teresa of Avila, St. Benedict and St. Ignatius of Loyola. (“The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit...in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation”. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 688)
We value hospitality through a nurturing and welcoming environment. (“Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another”. 1 Peter 4:8-9)
We value the ecumenical nature of our community where all are welcome. (“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
We value integrity and professionalism through fostering ongoing human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation.(Observe the person of integrity and mark the upright; because there is a future for a person of peace. Psalm 37:37)
