Security of Spiritual Direction

"We crave for spiritual security, or rather the feeling of security; real security is what God wants us to have and that can only be when we have let go our own securities, which are illusory, and rely on him alone. The craving for spiritual guidance may well form one of these illusory securities. We want to be assured that what is happening in our prayer is all right, we want to be given definite guidelines so that we can feel safe. 'Direction' .. can be dangerous. For one thing it presumes not only an intimate knowledge of the one concerned but also a knowledge of God and his mysterious ways on the part of the director."

Ruth Burrows OSB, from The Monastic Way edited by: Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, p. 24