Spiritual Direction in a Climate Crisis
This was not an easy session …
During Annette Kaye’s recent Developing Direction event, ‘Spiritual Direction in a Climate Crisis’, we were asked to look fully into the climate and ecological crisis facing us, and caused by us. Annette then went on to describe how the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises can offer a framework within which we can discern our response to this crisis, drawing on prayer and spiritual direction*.
Name, or Numb?
I created this climate crisis word cloud to name the emotions I experienced during Annette’s session. They also rise within me whenever I read the latest UN reports calling for urgent climate action, or watch David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series, or listen to the voices of those who have lost homes and livelihoods as a result of climate change. Creating this word cloud has helped me name my responses, or else I too easily numb them.
What might your own climate crisis word cloud look like?
Spiritual Direction: part of the ‘Solution’?
“The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion.”
I have also been pondering how Spiritual Directors might respond to directees who are wrestling with issues and emotions raised by the climate and ecological crisis. Yes, we can seek to bring Christ’s light and hope to those experiencing fear and despair, but our work isn’t done if we stop there. Spiritual Direction offers a unique, safe space in which people can dare to look full face into the crisis - a space in which they can cry out for God’s strength to help them overcome the urge to avoid or deny. And, crucially, a space in which they can start to envisage their own, uniquely shaped, response.
Some contemplative responses:
Below are some contemplative responses that might be worth offering as you seek to create a safe space for your directees:
Encourage your directees to reflect on their own connectedness - with God and with the world we inhabit, in particular the ‘other-than-human’ world. Where and when do our directees sense this connectedness? And how are they being drawn into a response of love and compassion?
An imaginative reflection on Jesus’ answer to the question: “Who is my neighbour?” Imagine Jesus suggesting to us that the Earth is one of our ‘neighbours’ today. How might we respond? Perhaps the words of Thích Nhất Hạnh are helpful, if challenging: “What we most need to do is hear within ourselves the sounds of the Earth crying.”
An Examen-inspired reflection on what brings life and what drains it; but rather than applying this to our own individual context and experience, perhaps we could apply it more holistically. What brings life, and what drains life, from the natural world, from the ecological and societal system of which we are a part? And how are we/our directees bringing life to it already, even in small ways?
Encourage directees to bring these difficult issues into their prayer life. An article in the National Catholic Reporter sums this up well: “The evil of global climate change and the suffering of so many will not change merely by our prayer alone. But it is important to recognize that prayer is key to conversion and living out our Christian vocation… we cannot afford to ignore the spiritual dimension of the climate crisis in our midst.”
The impact of climate change is revealed before our eyes on an almost daily basis now. We are confronted ever more starkly with the scale of the damage that our actions have caused, and continue to cause. So there is ever greater need for safe spaces in which we can hear the still, small voice of God, and in which we sense God’s heart broken by the brokenness of a creation that God still loves deeply and passionately. And a space in which we can begin to discern our response.
* Visit Annette’s own blog www.annette-kaye.com/soultalk for more on this important topic.
Nick Tatchell
Nick Tatchell is a spiritual director who lives with his wife, Linda, in the beautiful north-west Highlands of Scotland. He completed the Encounter course in 2023. As well as sitting on (all too frequent) Zoom calls, Nick runs a sustainability consulting business, engages with the local community around environmental and climate change issues, walks with his dog on the local hills, and sings in a local Gaelic choir. You can connect with Nick via the LCSD website by clicking here and searching for Nick Tatchell.