People are often helped to integrate their faith and their life by talking on a regular basis (e.g., monthly) with someone they can trust. This person acts as a guide (sometimes also called a spiritual friend, companion, or director) for the journey, helping them to find the presence and call of God in the people and circumstances of their everyday lives. The assumption is that God is already present there, and that another person, a guide, can help them to notice God’s presence and also to find words for talking about that presence, because they are not used to doing so. The guide is often a specially trained listener skilled in discernment* and therefore able to help them sort out the various voices within and around them. While he/she may suggest various kinds of spiritual exercises*/ways of praying, the focus is much broader than that; it is upon the whole of a person’s life experience as the place to meet God.
