Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Direction

Go deeper into the life of the Spirit and learn to support the same attention to God in others. The MTS Spiritual Direction program provides the contemplative training necessary to hear the direction the Spirit is moving in a person’s life. When you graduate, you will have the theoretical foundation, practical skills, and personal transformation necessary to companion others in their spiritual journeys.
You can add a Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Direction to any of the degree programs we offer.
Check out "Find Your Center, Find Your Feet," a spiritual direction podcast on Podbean produced by Marcella Kraybill-Greggo, program director, and Pam Rotelle Robertson, adjunct professor.
Attend our November 11, 2024 Meet MTS: Spiritual Direction Information Session on Zoom!

Here’s what it takes

Available to both in person and online students, this two year, 20-credit Spiritual Direction Program is anchored in scripture, grounded in hospitality, incarnational in nature, and deeply formational. The program invites you to go deeper into the life of the Spirit while preparing to facilitate this same attention to God in others. Attending to your personal and communal experience of God, you will develop an increased sensitivity to the movement of the Holy within yourself and your local and global communities.

Spiritual Direction Program Curriculum Overview

Personal Spirituality

“Spiritual direction encourages an honest look at what grace illumines. It affirms that God is in our lives and hearts and can be encountered” (Susan Phillips). 

Individual spiritual direction supports the on-going spiritual and psychological growth that is needed to become a spiritual director. As a student in the Spiritual Direction Graduate Certificate program, you are required to receive monthly individual spiritual direction. (If you do not already have a spiritual director, we can give you contact information for several local spiritual directors. The fee for spiritual direction is contracted privately between the student and their spiritual director and is the responsibility of the student.) 

Prerequisites for the Practicum Courses


Throughout the program, you will engage with the Formative Spirituality director and team in a process of careful, mutual discernment to uncover your call and aptitude for the ministry of spiritual direction. Following are the prerequisites to the practicum courses:

  • Clear background checks;

  • Understanding and signed acceptance of the Spiritual Directors International (SDI) Code of Ethics;
  • Letter of reference from your current spiritual director;
  • Satisfactory completion of Theory & Ethics of Spiritual Direction and 1 core course;
  • Interview with the Formative Spirituality director;
  • Evidence of call and aptitude for the ministry of spiritual direction;
  • At least 1-year experience of receiving monthly spiritual direction.

Wisdom School Retreats  

In year 2 of the Spiritual Direction Certificate Program* the curriculum includes two 3-day retreat learning Wisdom School residencies (Fall and Spring) in addition to five required courses. Both Wisdom School residencies will be held at a local retreat center near Bethlehem, PA. These Wisdom School retreats integrate Moravian’s unique charism of inclusivity and community within a deep contemplative stream and the pedagogy of a Wisdom School.  The two retreat residencies will be conducted in a Wisdom School format, with times of Centering Prayer and Body Movement interspersed with teaching and practice work, creating a Benedictine rhythm of ora et labora (prayer and work). There is an additional fee charged to cover the retreat center accommodations.

*In year 2 of the Spiritual Direction Certificate Program, students in the 1-year Spiritual Direction Intensive Program join with the students in the 2-year program.