Mercy Sister reflects on her 30 years in spiritual direction
A man came to see Sister Mary Ann Scofield in her office at Mercy Center in Burlingame one recent afternoon with a puzzled expression. A frequent visitor, he sat down on the chair opposite her and said, “Something odd keeps happening to me. I am awakened in the night often, several nights a week. That’s not strange, but I have the feeling that God is very close, and I am supposed to pray then at that moment. Why? Why not at some reasonable time during the day?”
“Tell me about the experience,” Sister Scofield responded. “What exactly happens?”
“I just feel that God is very near and loving me,” the man responded. “But, in the middle of the night? Am I supposed to do something?”
Sister Scofield has sat with hundreds of faithful people seeking to unwind the threads of the holy in their lives. “The person has come to me because he knows God is nudging or calling him,” she said, “but he needs help figuring out what to do. I would typically tell the person to stay with the experience. There is always more to unwrap in an inner call like this one.” (Note: This personal story was used with the man’s permission.)
One of the graces Sister Scofield brings to her work is intense listening and gentle questioning. This focused and delicate work is the art of spiritual direction, or spiritual companioning, an art which she has practiced and taught for 30 years at Mercy Center and all over the world. She has trained others to listen deeply as spiritual directors to help people at key points in their faith lives. Some people come for spiritual direction on a regular on-going basis as “directees.” They feel these human conversations are a part of developing their relationship with God.
Sister Scofield points out that spiritual direction is not therapy. Spiritual directors can recommend therapy if it is needed. “But what spiritual directors are looking for,” she said, “is to help you answer questions such as, how do you pray from an experience of loss? How do you move from anger at God to trust?
Another woman came to Mercy Center in deep grief following the death of two family members, unable to pray or be comforted in her sense of loss and anger at God. The spiritual director listened to her story and helped her to reflect on the many ways that her faith and family had supported her through her suffering. She again began to see God’s action in her life. The director gently guided her back to the comfort of prayer.
Sister Scofield began teaching others to become spiritual directors in the 1980s, as more and more lay people came to Mercy Center and other retreat centers asking for this companioning. The organization she helped found, Spiritual Directors International, is celebrating its 20th anniversary at a conference, “Gratefulness: The Heart of Spiritual Care,” in San Francisco April 8-12. Sister Scofield will be a keynote speaker alongside other notables such as Alexander Shaia; Brother David Steindl-Rast, OSB; Brian Schwimme; and Rev. Jane Vannard.
Her work has its roots in years of teaching when she entered the Mercy community in Burlingame in 1947. She was formation director from 1964-1974, guiding young Mercy sisters in their prayer and reading, helping them to become part of the Sisters of Mercy community. Along the way, she received a doctorate in theology at St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame University in Indiana which prepared her for what became her true vocation.
Sister Scofield began the practice of spiritual direction at the newly opened Mercy Center after receiving a master’s degree at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., in 1980. This skill of listening deeply to others has its roots in Ignatian spirituality, but she and others opened the door to a variety of faith traditions. She began working with spiritual directors in a Mercy Center program, the Internship of the Art of Spiritual Direction, which has now trained over 1,500 Catholics, Protestant and Jews to accompany others on their spiritual journeys.
“The heart of the spiritual accompaniment is listening to the story,” she has said. “Everyone has a story to tell. It takes patience, discipline, and can make us feel vulnerable, to listen to the whole story.” A person needs to feel a call from God to become a spiritual director, but also needs a solid theological and intellectual foundation. Spiritual directors in training also have intensive formation which includes supervised practice with directees.
Sandra Lommasson, now the director of Bread of Life Center in Sacramento, met Sister Scofield in 1989 when Sandra entered the program for spiritual directors. “She was – and is - a gifted teacher,” Lommasson said, “grounded, articulate, passionate about serving God, a woman with a penetrating intellect and deep personal integrity.”
That integrity prompted her to help begin a support network for other spiritual directors. In 1990 ninety spiritual directors from all over the U.S. came to Mercy Center to consider the shape and direction of an organization. The group prayed for guidance.
“We were honoring the movement of the spirit in our midst and acknowledging that present times call for new responses. We had an attitude of service,” said Mercy Sister Janet Ruffing, who had discovered her own vocation in spirituality during a 30-day Ignatian Retreat. The result had changed her life, and she was a long time member of the faculty at Fordham University and is now professor in the practice of spirituality and ministerial leadership at Yale Divinity School, the first to hold this position.
Sister Scofield became the executive director of the fledgling Spiritual Directors International, and Sister Ruffing was on the first coordinating council. The group drew together people from training programs all over the world. Sister Scofield felt the international dimension was especially important. “We wanted to be of service to spiritual directors wherever they were,” she said.
People from many countries have attended the Mercy Center programs.
Online resources
Find more information about spiritual direction programs at www.mercy-center.org and www.sdiworld.org
View a one-minute audio slideshow on Sister Mary Ann Scofield and her ministry.
By Liz Dossa
From March 26, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
