Ms. KATE FEENY-BASTIAN (United Church of Christ): Not everyone can be with people who are dying, and somehow God has graced me with being able to be in those settings. But for a balance, I need some of these celebrative things, too, and that's why I don't feel that my whole ministry is hospice. I need to have ...

Ms. COONS: Were you paying attention to that spirit within and following what you're hearing within?

VALENTE: The concept of spiritual direction goes back to the fourth century, when contemplative men and women began migrating from the Holy Land to the North African desert. People would seek them out for spiritual sustenance. The monastic tradition followed, then the mystics, like St. Ignatius and others, and more recently with monks and nuns. Today spiritual direction is no longer the province of clergy alone.

Ms. BOMBARD: One of the documents, the Vatican II, speaks to the universal call to holiness. There was more of an understanding that individual people had not only the right but the responsibility for their own spiritual development.

VALENTE: The Institute for Spiritual Leadership in Chicago originally trained clergy in spiritual direction. In recent years, it has expanded to include laypeople, both Catholics and Protestants.

Ms. TUCKER (To Group): Most of us learned or were taught that the way to get to this God, who was outside of me, was through prayer, particularly prayers of petition, okay; through good works. Very few of us were taught that God is in here, okay? Most of us didn't learn that as children.

VALENTE: A person usually finds a spiritual director through word of mouth. Visits might be one hour a month at fees ranging from $20 to $50. Ann Coons, for example, must rely on other sources of income to make a living. People who do this work are not licensed, but do operate under a code of ethics drawn up recently by their international organization.

Ms. BOMBARD: We don't believe that the spiritual director holds the wisdom that needs to come out. We believe that the person themselves has the wisdom within them to put together what it is they're struggling with. But sometimes they just need someone that they can talk to, who will help them bring that wisdom forth, and it's an amazing thing.

VALENTE: Spiritual directors are looked upon as people with a gift for listening and providing insight, showing others how their inner life relates to the outside world.

Mr. BEEMAN: It has allowed me to accept things that I saw in the past as rejections and reasons to be very upset, and now I'm able to accept in a better fashion the unfolding of business and still be myself fully and not measure myself on a specific result, but on what the flow of all that is.

Judge DAM: I see life differently. I sit and hear cases; I sit in a position of judgment. And so the concept of judgment looks different to me now. I think it's made me more tolerant because I don't see things so black and white anymore.

VALENTE: It may change the way people live their lives, or it may simply teach them how to pray.

Ms. HOLLAND: I am amazed that I went through my whole life praying and never felt close to God, but I didn't know what it was supposed to be like. And now, all of a sudden, it's just -- it's the most powerful thing.

VALENTE: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Judy Valenti in Chicago.