The Touch Of Other
Feeling God’s Presence
The most powerful touch I ever felt was the first touch of a child inside me.
Something other was there. I wasn’t the only inhabitant of my body; my daughter lived there too.
It was the tiniest flutter of a touch, like butterfly wings. Almost unnoticeable. Could have been missed. But so strange, so foreign, so other, so unmissable.
That’s how God touches us. We may not consciously notice the touch, but our soul notices the touch and wonders.
We come to spiritual direction to talk about a growing awareness of God. There was a flutter of wings, a touch on our shoulder, a knock at our door, or nothing at all. But we think we want to talk about it all the same.
Spiritual directors listen to our sacred story of God growing within us. Spiritual directors listen with their ears and their hearts. They encourage us to listen with our hearts. God is inviting us into conversation, and we don’t want to miss it.
Three chairs are often used as the symbol of spiritual direction.
The first chair is for the one who has come to talk, the second for the one who is there to listen, the third for the presence of God, our Spiritual Director. Together we hear the sacred conversations, the one spoken aloud and the one heard within, to listen this life of God into being. The life of the holy Other.
(White Hawk photograph by Father Bill Crowe, Used with permission.)