Losses are inevitable and are ever present in all lives. Grief is a normal response to loss whether the loss involves the loss of a job or a demotion, divorce, a house that burns down, a favorite car that is destroyed in a wreck, an “F” on a report card, a move, or any of the other losses each of us experiences as we live our lives. Grief is a normal reaction to any loss and is experienced holistically--physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

Henri Nouwen provides great insight into the spiritual dynamics of grief, loss, and coping with death in The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom. For spiritual directors guiding grieving people and those experiencing various personal crises, Nouwen’s journal can be a great tool to open the directee to expressing what he or she is experiencing deep within one’s being.

This post is keyed to Kevin Culligan's “Working with Darkness in Spiritual Direction” found in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, September 2010, 44-52.

Kevin Culligan provides the reader with a concise roadmap of the cartography of the spiritual journey as mapped out by St. John of the Cross. He focuses on two major works, The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul, both considered to be foundational resources for “understanding the phenomenon of darkness in the spiritual life” (44). Spiritual directors will find Culligan’s work helpful in assessing which stage of the spiritual journey their directees are currently experiencing and determining appropriate ways to assist them in moving forward. Additionally, it is always good to have an idea of where one is personally on the journey as well.

The author’s opening lines are familiar to anyone who has worked in spiritual direction for a few years. Directees come to sessions voicing concerns about their inability to pray, the “dryness” of their spiritual lives, their seeming inability to understand the “darkness” of their journey, and wondering if something has gone horribly wrong. Culligan’s paper provides the director with tools to address these questions and provide hope and support for the directee during these painful periods.