The Guild for Spiritual Guidance is a spiritual formation program designed to prepare participants for a ministry of assisting others to discern God's presence in their lives, and in the diverse contexts of contemporary society. 

The Guild experience consists of a two-year apprenticeship program of study, prayer, and reflection within an ecumenical community focused on spiritual formation.  The goal of this training is growth in the contemplative awareness of God's presence within all of life along with the recognition that the ever-present care and grace of God can renew our fear-conditioned self-identity.  When this kind of transformation happens for a participant, then he or she can become a listener to the deep desires of another person's heart and to God's gracious presence in that person's life. 

The application process involves a lengthy essay, as well as an interview with three staff members.  Applicants who are accepted attend nine intensive twenty-four hour sessions and two two-day retreats per year.  In these sessions, they study the three strands of the core curriculum:  The Christian Mystical tradition, Jungian Depth Psychology and Teilhard de Chardin's vision.  They are exposed to a variety of experiential presentations and exercises, and are united into a community of prayer, study and attentiveness to the work of God's Spirit.  Participants have to submit reflection papers on all strands of the program plus a major integration paper.  They receive training in listening skills, and are required to have a personal spiritual director or guide while attending the program.  Upon graduation they receive a certificate and become members of "the Greater Guild", the assembly of all Guild graduates.  This assembly meets twice yearly for a "Greater Guild" retreat, a continuation of the formative and supportive community experiences found in the two-year apprenticeship program.  

When our founders met twenty two years ago, they had no precedents or models, nothing but an awareness of a deep hunger for something more, for a formative program that united clergy and laity, denominations and races.  They gradually discerned that this need might be filled by studying in a program that wed together the rich heritage of Christian spirituality, Carl Jung's insights into the wisdom of the human psyche, and Teilhard de Chardin's vision that situates the individual spiritual journey within a global and cosmic setting.  The program has refined the three strands of the core-program over the years, has defined "community" as a fourth strand and has added a variety of experiential sessions that foster awareness and listening skills on many levels.  A group processor is present throughout each weekend to help participants share and speak from the inner or true self.  

Spirituality is always experienced within a specific social, cultural and ecological context.  The need to offer a spiritual formation program is therefore all the greater today as we face the challenges of globalization, widespread social strife and new opportunities for inter-religious dialogue.

A new two-year program starts in January, 2010.  Applications are being accepted, and interviews will begin the summer and fall of 2009.  

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The Guild invites participants to ground themselves in the Christian mystical tradition, which is rooted in Scripture and in a felt presence of a loving God.  We study select spiritual classics, both traditional and contemporary.  When these writers relate what happened to their humanity under the impact of God's love and claim that these experiences are the potential of all people, they can speak across the centuries to our own needs and circumstances. 

This strand of the program includes an outline of C. G. Jung's essential thought, his theories of individual development, depth psychology's perspective on the spiritual component of the psyche, and the individual's relationship to the unconscious. Special emphasis is given to the symbols of the archetypal realm and to the psyche's images.

Teilhard invites us to "see" with the eyes of faith enlightened by science and in the light of creative evolution.  For Teilhard, God is transparent in and through matter as the energy of love draws us into creative union with the universe, with ourselves, with others and with God.  We will focus on the thinkers and those movements which are influenced by Teilhard's works.  

• The Guild For Spiritual Guidance will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2003. Guild members have ranged in age from 25-80, but most are in their forties or fifties. They have come from as far away as North Carolina or Ontario. Occupations are varied, ranging from counselors, lawyers, physicians, teachers, homemakers, management consultants, clergy, computer experts and engineers to musicians, liturgists, and artists.
  
  
• A searching spirit and a deep spiritual hunger are characteristics which all members of The Guild have in common.

• Consciousness of being on a spiritual journey and a growing personal awareness of God's presence in and among us unites the group.

 
• Sufficient background and openness to assimilate the insights of Jungian Depth Psychology, of Teilhard de Chardin's vision, and of the many challenging voices of the spiritual tradition are helpful.

 
• A willingness to learn within a group from different religious backgrounds and convictions and a growing ability to listen within such contexts is needed.

 

• Prior experience of counseling is helpful but not essential. The Guild intends to foster spiritual growth but is not geared to resolve personal psychological problems.

A certificate is awarded at the completion of the two-year program. This award assumes a commitment to further prayer, study and service.

When an academic degree or other certification would serve a member's vocational needs, special arrangements should be made with other institutions to use and evaluate The Guild program for credit toward a degree.

Presently the fee is $2,900 per year. It covers tuition, meals, and lodging and can be paid yearly, quarterly, or monthly.  Some scholarship aid for Guild apprentices is available through gifts from graduates and supporters of The Guild.

Please send inquiries to:

The Guild For Spiritual Guidance
c/o Sally Woodhall
68 Harrison Lane
Bethlehem, CT 06751
(203-266-5329)

or if you want to e-mail the Director (Sally Woodhall) about an application or an inquiry, click here-> Director
 

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"The Guild years opened me to the Mystery of all that is and helped me to journey into the mystery of my own heart. What an ambitious, all-inclusive, life-giving, and fruitful program!"
 

"We have been together at the edges and have walked hand in hand through the thin places between the knowing and the unknowing deep within the living Mystery of God."
 

"I have never known a group so full of support, prayer, and love. I would not miss a Guild session for the world."
 

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http://www.sdiworld.org/ an ecumenical association of colleagues, grounded in the Christian faith, whose sole purpose is to serve the growing network of spiritual directors world-wide and the people who train them.

http://www.pendlehill.org/ Pendle Hill is an adult center for study and contemplation.

http://www.kirkridge.org/ Kirkridge Retreat Center: integration of personal growth and social.

http://www.emptybell.org is a sanctuary for the study of Christian meditation and prayer. 

http://www.shalem.org/ an ecumenical community responding to a call to help mediate God's Spirit in the world through the loving wisdom of contemplative tradition.

http://shalomplace.com/ providing resources to encourage Christian contemplative spirituality

http://www.spiritualityhealth.com puts out a magazine "Spirituality & Heath"

http://www.workplacespirituality.info/ a Web site developed by a graduate of the Guild for Spiritual Guidance that promotes the uncovering and re-discovery of spirituality at the workplace.  

www.e-livingwater.org The Living Water Spiritual Center in Winslow, Maine. This is an