One to One Accompaniment
During his life Ignatius accompanied many people helping them to reflect on God in their daily lives and the tradition has gone on with accompaniment being one of the central elements of what we offer at the Centre.
Spiritual accompaniment in the Ignatian tradition is based on the assumption that God is present and active in our lives and that through reflection and prayer we can become more sensitive to this presence.
Through discernment, and sometimes with the accompaniment of another person, we are invited to ‘find God in all things’, to notice how God is drawing us in our everyday, concrete experiences and how we respond to this invitation of God.
One to one spiritual accompaniment is available for anyone who wishes to have a companion or 'soul friend' come alongside on their spiritual journey for a periond of time.
The practice of spiritual accompaniment is faith based in that it asumes that there is some basis of faith present which is the person's expression, in his or her life, of their relationship with God or Christ. The growth and promotion of that relationship is the focus of the accompaniment.
The person accompanying is not there to give advice or say how the person ought to feel or proceed but to listen carefully to what is offered and act as a 'sounding board' for whatever is brought and shared. Experience shared may involve the person's prayer life or spiritual life in gerneral, or relationships or any other aspect of what has occured in life since the last meeting and how these events have affected the person and their relationship with God.
Meetings are typically for around an hour about once a month. Anything shared is strictly confidential. The focus of the sessions follows the thread of what is offered by the person being accompanied. At the end of meetings suggestions may be made of things to reflect on and pray with but simply to enable the person to reflect further and find helpful ways of proceeding.
One to one spiritual accompaniment is available at the Centre. We are also able to connect people to accompaniers in other parts of Scotland.
If you are interested in finding out more about the possibility of meeting for one to one spiritual accompaniment please contact us for further information.