In a chapter on "Spiritual Direction with Women," Kathleen Fischer writes from what appears to be the perspective of a white, middle-class, North American, Christian feminist. A strength of her essay is that it offers concrete approaches for empowering women through spiritual direction (at least other white, middle-class, North American, Christian women). But she is not trying to address every conceivable socio-economic group; among other reasons, it's only a brief essay.

I liked her quote from theologian Wendy Wright, who emphasizes that in a tradition dominated by the experience of "celebate" men, we need to include, for instance, the experience of "a married woman with children." Says Wright, "Where is there talk of the holy ground of intimacy and embodiment -- the powerful self-transcendence found in sexual intercourse, pregnancy, lactation, and birth? ... Finally, where was the language of home-making, of dwelling, of allowing the place and people with whom you dwell to initiate you into deeper and richer perceptions of the sacred?"

I also appreciated Fischer's suggestion to ask questions like:

"What do I most fully know, but feel afraid to honor?" and

"What is my own deepest desire?"

She also recommends using "indirect forms of communication such as dreams, poetry, painting, drawing, and movement. These frequently reveal layers of the self concealed by ordinary speech."

Given the female tendency towards the sin of self-abnegation (that is, lack of self -- the opposite of the male proclivity to selfishness and pride), Fischer suggests offering women models of "Jesus' self-care," because the last example many women need is more encouragement to self-sacrifice (for instance, see "Mark 1:35-36 where Jesus leave[s] the crowds to spend time alone in prayer" or "Mark 6:31, Jesus' invitation to his apostles to 'come away and rest for a while").

Ethicist Beverly Harrison reflects theologically from this perspective saying, "Jesus' paradigmatic role in the story of our salvation rests not in his willingness to sacrifice himself, but in his passionate love of right-relations and his refusal to cease to embody the power-of-relation in the face of that which would thwart it."

Along these lines, another helpful idea is to ask, "How can I best love both myself and the other person well in this situation."

So, as a white, middle-class, North American, Christian MALE, who is being trained as a spiritual director, this essay is a reminder that there may be women that I can only accompany to a certain point on their spiritual journey. There may be times when I need to refer a female directee to a female director -- or to a women's group -- either in addition to or instead of our work together. One of the strongest reasons for this is the haunting statistics about the terribly high percentage of women who have been abused -- whether physically, sexually, or emotionally -- by men.