The Spiritual Direction of Holy Week
- Dr. Anthony Lilles
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
The art of spiritual direction builds up the Church by helping souls enter into ceaseless prayer. This kind of prayer is possible because Christ dwells in the heart of the believer in constant communication with the Father. His praise and petitions rise up in the Christian heart through the power of the Holy Spirit whether or not the disciple is fully conscious of it. Conversely, the blessings of the Father are constantly poured out on His Son with, in and through the humanity of the one who has given his life to Christ. A good spiritual director helps a spiritual son or daughter become aware of this movement in them and teaches them to live by it until the Christian can say with St. Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
With these words, we find the still point of St. Paul's teaching regarding the unity and discipline of the Apostolic Church. At this point, in his letter to the Galatians, he has just finished describing not only his legitimacy as an apostle but also his rebuke of St. Peter. Just as St. Peter once acted out of fear the night Christ was betrayed, St. Paul saw him again acting out of fear to impress a powerful faction of the Church at the expense of the weaker one. In the power of the Holy Spirit and with his apostolic authority, St. Paul brought St. Peter to repentence just as Christ had done after the resurrection. An analogy of life in the Church with what happened at Holy Week is suggested in this. To seal this analogy, St. Paul asserts he is co-crucified with Christ and lives now the life of Christ. In other words, the power of Christ unveiled in his death and resurrection is also at work in him and in the Church.
If we look at this under the rubric of spiritual direction, where one soul in the Church helps another see the powerful things that God is doing, and this so that the right response of one's life might be rendered, you could say that this is what St. Paul offered to St. Peter. That is one apostle made the other conscious of what was really at stake in the perplexing tension between the Gentiles and Jews with its corrolary tension between the faith of the New Covenant and the Old. Not only as an apostle, but as a good spiritual director, St. Paul helped St. Peter repent through turning his attention away from the opinions of his peers to living mystery of the Risen Christ. To propose such a new direction to St. Peter was only possible because of St. Paul's own lived awareness of what Christ had done for him, an awareness he himself recieved through the prayer and teaching of the Church. In other words, this ministry is inherently ecclesial and even liturgical.
From this perspective, the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week live at the very heart of spiritual direction and unveil the ecclesial dimension of this "art of arts.". In these liturgies, the deepest truth of the Christian heart is made manifest. The liturgy, that is the public work of the Church rendered for the salvation of the world until the end of time, brings into consciousness those mysteries by which the believer lives even in the face of death. Through this public prayer, the Church herself directs all the faithful as a spiritual mother, helping them remember who they are and the tremendous gift that has been offered them. When anyone really beholds this gift, that is, really contemplates the Lamb of God, he can never live the same way again. In this way, the Church at prayer is the greatest spiritual director, for with the power of the Holy Spirit, she teaches the faithful to give thanks in every circumstance until they learn to offer their own bodies "as a spiritual sacrifice" (Romans 12).
If someone were to argue that the Holy Spirit is the ultimate spiritual director, I could not disagree. But this ecclesial dimension of spiritual direction that is so profoundly operative above all at Holy Week as it culminates in the Triduum is how the Holy Spirit chooses to direct: always through, in and with the Body of Christ, the Church. A spiritual director is merely the locus of an ecclesial outpouring of the Holy Spirit whether by a charism or by the priestly office or both. The attentiveness and discernment that a spiritual director embraces is always through, with and in the Church - or it is not of the Holy Spirit.
During Holy Week, it is a beautiful time to participate in the all the liturgies as much and as attentively as possible. Allowing oneself a little more time for silence and prayer. Being a little less concerned about food and drink for the body to enjoy the rich banquet offered by the Church. In these liturgies, Christ reveals again by the power of the Holy Spirit how much has been given to bear away our sins and how much we are loved by the Father. When we are more aware of such rich treasures, we will always find that new direction witnessed to by the apostles.
