Focus: The Body Issue

*published in Presence: The Journal of Spiritual Directors International, January 1999*

We don't plan theme issues here at Presence. In fact, the articles in any given issue are often determined by what is written, edited, and ready to go. Nevertheless, as an issue comes together, frequently a theme emerges. Various events have conspired to make this the "Body" issue, in more ways than one.

"The Body" began to assert itself midway through the production of the September 1998 issue when my task was interrupted by a supposedly routine surgery. In reality, this "outpatient" procedure turned into a nightmare as unexpected infection set in and I had to spend the better part of a week in the hospital. Even now, four months after the operation, my doctor shakes his head and tells me he doesn't know why I'm not healing properly. It is a mystery I am trying to sit with, without judging my body too harshly, or becoming impatient with it. If there is a positive side to the event, it is that I have been forced to embrace "Brother Ass," as St. Francis endearingly referred to his own body, and have come to regard its cautionary objections in a more compassionate manner.

This little event turned my world on its ear. As I agonized over my looming production deadline from my recovery bed, I received numerous notes, phone calls and email messages with a singular message: "The journal can be late. Just heal." For a Type-A, (Myers-Briggs) "J"-off-the-scale like myself, this was especially hard to hear, and hard to accept, although gratefully, I finally did. The idea that one's own health is more important than deadlines is anathema to managing editors, and yet, thanks to Brother Ass, I am beginning to get the message.
This does not mean that I have become a model of patience when it comes to my body. It does mean that I take a moment to listen now to what it might be trying to say to me, as yet another source of revelation, another harmonious voice in God's Cantata of the World.

I know I am not the only person to struggle with my body. In this issue Book Review Editor Susan Schenck Izard wrestles with her own body issues in her Reflection on "Body Image and the Sacred" (p. 46). Gloria Carpeneto also offers us a body-oriented article on how the body can aid healing and provide a valuable component of one's spiritual direction practice in "Healing by Touch and Hearing the Holy: Interweaving Body and Spirit" (p. 6).

Both of these articles are testimony to the fact that we are integrated beings of body, mind, and spirit which cannot - and should not in our thinking and practice - be divorced.

The largest "body" issue with which this edition deals, however, is our new design. After many months of discussion, experimentation, and the solicitation of designs from professional designers, we hope that Presence's new "body" will be something that the membership of Spiritual Directors International can be proud.

In our new design we have attempted to incorporate the values that spiritual directors deem necessary to their ministry: spaciousness, congeniality, and professionalism.

Even our new type faces reflect our goals. Galahad (found both on the cover and on the title of each article) points to the past, recalling the antiquity of our ministry with its jagged edges, and archaic yet friendly feel. At the same time, the page headings and volume number line on the cover are Gill Sans, lending a post-modern look that points to the future. Sabon, our new body font, is elegant and pleasing to the eye, both in its Roman and Italic forms.

Those who reviewed the design ahead of time have commented that the two-column approach is easier to read than the single column of times past, and many have been delighted at the clean, breezy feeling the new pull-quotes possess.

As a long-time editor of religious publications (five years with Creation Spirituality magazine, and two with the Episcopal Diocese of California's Pacific Church News), I am very pleased indeed with Presence's new "clothes." I hope that you concur.

Body themes are not all you will find in this issue. We are also privileged to have an interview with the keynote speakers scheduled for Spiritual Directors International's 1999 Conference: Debra Farrington and Joe Driskill. Debra is Editorial Director for Morehouse Publishing, and Joe is Assistant Professor of Spirituality at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, USA. Debra and Joe have, at various times, been colleagues and have been together in a director/directee relationship, giving them a unique perspective. In our interview, beginning on page 16, they give us a preview of their conference topic, speaking candidly and eloquently on the subject of "Finding God at Work and in Daily Life."

Canon Peter Ball features prominently in this issue, as well, for not only is his new book Anglican Spiritual Direction reviewed in this issue (p. 52), but he has also graced us with a gentle and wise article on how to help beginning directees ease into a contemplative path of prayer.

For those in rural areas who discern a need for more trained spiritual directors and would like a primer on setting up a training program, Margaret Dunn's informative article "A New Zealand Model for Training" describes how they've done it "down under."

And finally, Nancy Gower presents us with the dilemma of how to help disillusioned missionaries and others who have experienced a crushing blow to their faith experience healing in her article, "Traumatized Christian Workers: Who Can Help? And How?"

This issue also witnesses the start of a new column, entitled "Listening to Scripture." We envision this column to be a kind of group lectio divina, meditating on the scriptures of our traditions as they apply to our ministry of spiritual direction. Please feel free to submit your own "listenings" for future issues. Readers will note that this column replaces Andre Heuer's "Pilgrim's Guide to the Internet" which both Andre and the Presence editorial board agreed had served its purpose in introducing readers to internet basics. Andre will now concentrate his contributions in an annual feature on new websites, internet chats and other on-line resources, to be found in our upcoming September 1999 issue. We thank Andre for his ministry to us, and look forward to his article this autumn.

Happy new year from all of us at Presence! *

-John R. Mabry