IMRL601 – SD1: The Art of Accompaniment as a Mission of the Holy Spirit
3 credits
As Pope Francis asserted, “The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into this ‘art of accompaniment’ which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5)” (The Joy of the Gospel 169). This is especially true for spiritual leaders. In order to assist others in growth in prayer and using their gifts, the leader must learn to accompany those entrusted to his or her care. This accompaniment is a mission of the Holy Spirit, establishing a bond of unity among believers, leading to all truth, and guided by the gifts of wisdom and counsel. Through reading, lectures, and discussions, students will learn the foundational dynamics of spiritual accompaniment:
- The mission of the Holy Spirit
- The role of the Holy Spirit in Accompaniment
- The role of Leader as Spiritual Companion
- The interior life
- The way the Holy Spirit reveals the interior life of God and us
- The importance of vulnerability
- The Holy Spirit as the vulnerability of God
- A listening in the Holy Spirit that reveals and heals
- Communicating the Father’s Love through the power of the Holy Spirit
- Introduction to development in the life of prayer
- Basic psychological insights for spiritual accompaniment