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Spiritual Direction
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Two St. Patrick parishioners trained in spiritual direction, Faye Coorpender and Melinda LeBlanc, offer their services here at St. Patrick. Spiritual direction is help given by one Christian to another, thereby enabling that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication, to respond and grow in intimacy with this God, and live out the consequences of the relationship. (Taken from William A. Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction.)
- Spiritual direction is concerned with a person’s actual experience of a relationship with God.
- Spiritual direction is about a relationship. The religious experience is what happens in an ongoing relationship between the person and God. Most often this is a relationship that is experienced in prayer.
- Spiritual direction is a relationship that is going somewhere. God is leading the person to deeper faith and more generous service.
- The real spiritual director is God. God touches the human heart directly. The human spiritual director does not “direct” in the sense of giving advice and solving problems. Rather, the director helps a person respond to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship.
- Spiritual direction is not counseling, therapy or financial advice, but is regularly scheduled conversations about God and one’s relationship with God shared with trained professionals.
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Faye Coorpender
Faye Coorpender received her certification in spiritual direction from the Archdiocesan Spirituality Center in New Orleans in 2017. She is a certified catechist and has a Masters in Education from the University of Florida. She was on staff at St. Francis Academy in Gainesville, FL from 2007-2014, St. Michael the Archangel High School in Baton Rouge from 2014-2017, and the St. Joseph Spirituality Center from 2017-2019. She is a member of the Louisiana Association of Spiritual Directors (LASD) and previously served as member of the LASD board and as vice-president. Faye is an active member of the OCIA team and teaches Parish School of Religion classes (PSR). She is a member of the Respect Life ministry, the small group book study, the Stitching Ministry, her Spiritual Directors’ Peer Supervision group, and is an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist both at Mass and to the homebound of St. Patrick parish. Faye credits spiritual direction (20+ years) with giving her a profound trust in God and a deep faith life and says that providing spiritual direction to others is one of the greatest blessings in her life. Faye and her husband, Bill, have three children and eight grandchildren. Faye enjoys a variety of creative pursuits and loves spending time with friends and family. Faye provides on-going spiritual direction by appointment.
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Melinda LeBlanc
Melinda received her certification in Spiritual Direction from the Archdiocesan Spirituality Center in New Orleans in 2012. After retiring, she served as spiritual director and campus minister at Christ the King parish at LSU for four years. She offers individual spiritual direction, group direction, the Spiritual Exercises, and retreats. She is currently on the board of the Louisiana Association of Spiritual Directors, serving as board secretary. She holds a Master of Pastoral Studies degree from Loyola University. She has been attending St. Patrick Parish for the past 20 years. As a parishioner, she serves as a Eucharistic minister and homebound minister. Melinda is excited to offer spiritual direction here at St. Patrick parish, and looks forward to sharing her love of God and prayer with fellow parishioners and others on their faith journey.
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