Tony Himmelspach recently completed the three-year spiritual formation experience offered at the Dominican Center. He offers us this reflection.
Beginning with The Foundations in Spirituality course and then entering the two-year Spiritual Direction Practicum has been a heart- and mind-opening season of immense personal growth.
In my late twenties I began seriously following Jesus in a Protestant Fundamentalist church. I entered Bible School at age 30 and served in vocational ministry during that decade. For the next 30 years I was in private business while also performing ministerial services such as weddings, funerals, baptisms and leading Bible Studies.
As my spiritual understanding evolved, God was very clear in leading me toward a more contemplative path. I had heard of the Dominican Center over the years, but first contacted them seeking my own personal spiritual director in my late sixties. As is often observed, the more I got involved, the more I felt like I had found my people, my community of believers. I wish I would have found them sooner.
The staff of teachers and facilitators are all deeply caring and insightful spiritual guides. The books read, the exercises practiced, and the interactions with fellow students all have challenged and stretched my own deeper journey with Christ and faith in God. And the work accompanying others on their spiritual journeys has been perhaps the most intimate, rewarding and humbling I have ever had the privilege to experience.
“Coming Home” was the theme of my final thesis on Spiritual Direction. That phrase encompasses the wondrous journey this has been for me. I feel like I have come home to the awesome God who is much greater than I ever comprehended, come home to a family of believers who transcend spiritual divisions, and now have opportunity to walk with others in hopes of helping them come to their true home in God as well.
