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PASTORAL ADVICE
adviser should always take the initiative in getting in touch
with the physician when a physically sick person seeks advice on
his recommendation, so that nothing can occur to make the
doctor’s work more difficult, injure the patient, or create any
misunderstanding between the representatives of the healing
art and the cure of souls.
Needless to say, if a person who consults a spiritual adviser
appears to him to be suffering from an illness for which he is not
under medical care, the adviser should do all in his power to
see that it is provided. It is of great value for a spiritual adviser
if he understands medical diagnosis and knows how different
illnesses affect the mind and the religious life. It is generally
agreed also that he should be familiar with the more important
facts relating to the nature, diagnosis and treatment of mental
disease.
The Practical Problems of Life
Many people turn to a spiritual adviser merely because they
have need of someone to consult about their practical problems.
These may concern their choice of a trade or profession,
difficulties with their employers and fellow workers, family
quarrels, financial crises and a hundred and one other matters.
Sexual difficulties and vicissitudes in love and marriage
account for a high proportion of these consultations. Here the
spiritual adviser must become a kind of social counsellor. But
that is not all. He will be asked questions that have to do with
the art of living—the most difficult of all the arts; and he must
accept the duty of giving all the help he can to all who need it,
shouldering their burdens gladly even when no opportunity is
given him to lead those who consult him into a deeper spiritual
experience.
Some Rules for Pastoral Advisers
Sometimes one can give advice by saying nothing. Merely by
giving a confidant the opportunity to talk out his problems he is
enabled to see their solution, and a dilemma often resolves
itself when it is fully described.
The ability to listen patiently is very important. To listen is
not, however, merely to remain silent. One can be quiet in such
a manner that the other person is frozen into silence, or
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