Spiritual Counseling: a ministry serving the people of God

Abstract

Spiritual counseling is a very ancient service found in all cultures and religions. Biblical texts indicate many cases of people who looked for spiritual counseling, including from Oracles. In this article we will focus on spiritual counseling ministership in Catholic Church and more specifically as a service in the parochial community. Our reflections will go through the following questions: what spiritual counseling is for; fundamentals of spiritual counseling; what the profile of a spiritual counselor has to be; ethical elements in spiritual counseling; spiritual counseling methodology in the light of some biblical images. Jesus’ pedagogy has to be sought always. He is the Master who guides without imposing, who receives everyone without distinction, who has a word of hope and life. In his pedagogy, the protagonism of who is counseled is a condition to grow in faith and in building internal peace.