Deepen Your Awareness of God’s Presence through Spiritual Direction
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
Spiritual Direction is companionship as you seek to better understand the active presence of God in your own personal life.
In Spiritual Direction, you meet monthly with a Spiritual Director and talk about what is going on in your life, what you may be wondering about or questioning, how you want to experience God, and/or the ways you recognize God to be active in your life.
Spiritual Direction is a way you can pause in your daily activities, reflect on what is going on within you and around you, wonder about what your heart and mind are longing for, and open yourself to experiencing God in new, profound, comforting or even empowering ways.
A trained Spiritual Director is an active observer. They are someone who attentively listens to your thoughts and stories, offers you questions, curiosities and insights that can nurture your engagement with the presence of God. A Spiritual Director is not a counselor, therapist, or advisor…they are a spiritual companion.
At Ultreia Ministry, we offer individual and group spiritual direction. Contact us to learn about available individual sessions or open group direction.
Laura (Ultreia Ministry) was a huge blessing on the Camino Frances. She led us in meaningful and thought-provoking spiritual exercises, gave us ideas and questions to ponder as we walked, encouraged us, and taught us very practical camino how-to's, so that after a couple weeks' guidance we were able to complete the 500-mile Camino on our own. We absolutely could not have done it without her, nor would the experience have been nearly as meaningful!
—Joyce F., June 2023
Rev. Laura Rasmussen (Ultreia Ministry) transformed what could have been merely a hike or vacation into a fully immersive spiritual experience. Laura's ethic of holy curiosity, non-judgment, and her mindful approach to the present moment deepened my pilgrimage experience more than I could have imagined. She provided guideposts and reflective prayers, readings and poems to help me embrace the Camino as a time to reflect and plan at a crossroads in my own life, and to consider the Camino as a way of life unto itself.
— Rev. Taryn Strauss (September 2025)
The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a person’s life, to get behind the facade of conventional gestures and attitudes which one presents to the world, and to bring out one’s inner spiritual freedom, one’s inmost truth, which is what (Christian’s) call the likeness of Christ in one’s soul.
—Thomas Merton