{"id":10223,"date":"2007-10-02T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T19:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=10223"},"modified":"2011-08-08T14:52:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T19:52:03","slug":"5856","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/10\/02\/5856\/","title":{"rendered":"Unusual Duo \u2013 Massage Therapy and Spiritual Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> SIOUX CITY, IA (October 2, 2007) \u2013 Massage therapist and spiritual  director Sue Radosti says it makes perfect sense to combine her two  vocations.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" _mce_src=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" class=\"mceWPmore mceItemNoResize\" title=\"More...\"><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth vocations blend into one ministry of health,\u201d  says Radosti, a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Wakefield,  Nebraska. \u201cBoth have physical and spiritual aspects. Both may involve  words or silence. Both deepen people\u2019s awareness of their need for  transformation and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Radosti says combining the two also  is especially fitting for Christians. \u201cSo many people in the field are  so out there with the Eastern philosophy, and yet we are the one with  the incarnational theology,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n<p>Spiritual direction  is a process by which directors help directees discern and respond to  the movement of God in their lives. Generally, the sessions are done in a  room set aside for this purpose. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/08\/Spiritual.jpg\" _mce_src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/08\/Spiritual.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Spiritual\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10224\" height=\"293\" width=\"239\">But  people making an appointment with Radosti also can elect to have the  massage and do the spiritual direction at the same time. A recent  session incorporated times of silence, prayer and scripture. <\/p>\n<p>Not  only did the directee appreciate the experience, \u201cIt was very powerful  for me,\u201d says Radosti, explaining that the session gave her an even  deeper appreciation for the dignity of the person on the table.<\/p>\n<p>Radosti  knows people may have a hard time understanding the combination. \u201cI  wish there was one word for what I do \u2013 a word that makes an obvious  connection between massage and spiritual direction,\u201d Radosti reflects.  She still is unsure how the pairing will evolve over time.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Radosti was among the first class of students to graduate from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/cov\/news\/item5782\" _mce_href=\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/cov\/news\/item5782\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Spiritual Direction<\/a> operated by North Park Theological Seminary and funded in part by a  $1.6 million Lilly Endowment grant for the Sustaining Pastoral  Excellence program (SPE). <\/p>\n<p>She first enrolled in seminary in  1999 when North Park inaugurated its distance learning program with an  online course in small group ministry. Because Radosti was involved with  small groups in her church, she jumped at the opportunity to learn new  skills.<\/p>\n<p>The course, however, stirred a desire to examine her  faith in relation to her chosen vocation of massage therapy. When North  Park introduced a new degree concentration in faith and health the  following semester, Radosti was among the first to apply.<\/p>\n<p>In what  became a familiar routine of online classes and summer intensives,  Radosti spent six years completing her Master\u2019s Degree.&nbsp; She says the  coursework deepened both her spiritual understanding of health and her  appreciation of the church\u2019s ability to nurture health and wholeness.<\/p>\n<p>Radosti  often was the only student in her classes who wasn\u2019t either a  prospective pastor or a nurse with an interest in parish health  ministries. \u201cI was never sure,\u201d she admits, \u201cwhether I was preparing  myself for a new vocation, or whether I was becoming a new person in the  vocation I already practiced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Radosti wasn\u2019t the only  one in her social circle who was doing \u201cthe seminary thing.\u201d One of her  best friends was simultaneously studying spiritual direction at  Creighton University.&nbsp; Although the concept of a spiritual director was  new to Radosti, she was intrigued by the similarities between her  friend\u2019s task of nurturing spiritual wholeness and her own vocation of  facilitating physical healing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe would tell me, \u2018Sue, you\u2019ve  got all the gifts to be a spiritual director,\u2019 \u201d Radosti recalls.&nbsp; \u201cI  would always say, \u2018Yeah, yeah, that sounds great, but I\u2019ve got this  degree to finish.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>But just weeks shy of her 2005 graduation  from the seminary, the school announced another field of study \u2013 the  training program in spiritual direction.<\/p>\n<p>Radosti says she  hesitated to tell her church that she was applying for two more years of  schooling. But when she was admitted to the new program, her  congregation provided a scholarship so that she could graduate with no  tuition debt.<\/p>\n<p>She dreams of eventually establishing an ecumenical  retreat house, where both massage therapy and spiritual direction would  naturally fit into the larger picture of rest, renewal, and Christian  hospitality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=10223&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIOUX CITY, IA (October 2, 2007) \u2013 Massage therapist and spiritual director Sue Radosti says it makes perfect sense to combine her two vocations. \u201cBoth vocations blend into one ministry of health,\u201d says Radosti, a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Wakefield, Nebraska. \u201cBoth have physical and spiritual aspects. Both may involve words or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unusual Duo \u2013 Massage Therapy and Spiritual Direction - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/10\/02\/5856\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unusual Duo \u2013 Massage Therapy and Spiritual Direction - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SIOUX CITY, IA (October 2, 2007) \u2013 Massage therapist and spiritual director Sue Radosti says it makes perfect sense to combine her two vocations. \u201cBoth vocations blend into one ministry of health,\u201d says Radosti, a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Wakefield, Nebraska. \u201cBoth have physical and spiritual aspects. 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