Companioning Center Blog Archive

A Listening Heart

When we enter safe community to share of ourselves, we receive the gift of having our feet washed and the boundaries of our hearts enlarged. When we listen to others with that gracious and open heart, we offer to wash their feet with love. Listening, then, becomes sacred, a holy moment, a partnership with the Triune God.

God's Presence

Beauty

Reflection

Spiritual Practices

What Poetry Knows That Advice Does Not

There’s a temptation in spiritual direction to become a sage teacher—to respond to questions with wisdom rather than allowing wisdom to emerge from the person before us. And in a world where answers can be googled in an instant, and AI can act as a companion, advisor, and assistant, the draw to clarity rather than complexity is strong. But there are moments when advice arrives too soon. There are experiences that become distorted when we require them to take the neat shape of a spiritual lesson. Some griefs cannot be solved, and some desires require time and presence to discover the language or image that suits them. And finally, there are questions that become smaller when we rush to answer them.

Community

Discernment

God's Presence

When Your Spiritual Growth Looks Different from Your Community’s

As you bravely follow the Spirit into new territory, trusting the ever-deepening love of God to meet you, change you, and give you words and presence to share with those around you, may you discover your true freedom in God.

Beauty

Nature

Reflection

Remember the Birds

Remember the Birds Remember the birds, and how all of their needs are met? How much more does God care for you? Is there a detail that goes unnoticed? Is there a moment too insignificant? If the hairs on our head are numbered, then surely the details of our lives are contained within Presence.

Compassion as resistance: Jesus wept

Compassion as resistance: Jesus wept When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35)

Emotions

Reflection

Community

Let Go. Open Up. Be Free

Lang shares about a trip with his partner where emotions run high, and history repeats itself. Follow along as he walks through his process of being free and invites others to learn how to let go.

Spiritual Practices

Reflection

Embodiment

Small Things

In a culture that values bigger, faster, and stronger, my quiet life as a spiritual director sometimes seems a bit small. I start to worry: Shouldn’t I be doing more? Shouldn’t I be busier and more productive? Shouldn’t my ministry be bigger? Shouldn’t I do more to respond to the many problems of this world?

God's Presence

Faith

Spiritual Practices

Repaired for Shalom

God is an Artist, to be sure. His ability to repair our deepest cracks and wounds is worthy of wonder. But as much as our mended lives testify to his skill, he has even more in mind for us than display. By repairing individual lives, God is weaving an even greater shalom. Turning to another art form, the film The Mission illustrates the chain reaction of grace.

Spiritual Direction

God's Presence

Jungian

Dreaming Toward Union

My name is Ben Shoup, and as a spiritual director, I get to foster conversations with people seeking the Divine presence in their daily lives. These encounters often reveal a newfound depth of meaning, uncovering previously unnoticed insights.

The Children’s Jesus

The Children’s Jesus sparks the imagination. It invites us to the feet of Jesus through the eyes and experience of children who found themselves filled with great joy!

Companioning Center Blog Archive

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A Listening Heart

What Poetry Knows That Advice Does Not

When Your Spiritual Growth Looks Different from Your Community’s

Remember the Birds

Compassion as resistance: Jesus wept

Let Go. Open Up. Be Free

Small Things

Repaired for Shalom

Dreaming Toward Union

The Children’s Jesus

Resources

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