“This is one of the most frequent mistakes we make in the relationship with our spiritual father. Either out of ignorance and lack of experience in the spiritual life, or because we perceive any ‘distance’ between us as a sign of imperfection which triggers fear in us – we are easily tempted by the desire to befriend our spiritual father. That never ends well.

A spiritual father is a tool Christ uses in our life for spiritual purposes. He is the voice of Christ in our life.

When we use him for anything less than that, we lower the relationship and, sooner or later, we shall get it dirty and it will be taken away from us. We do not get closer by replacing a spiritual relationship with a human friendship. We lower something that is of Christ to something that is of this fallen works. We corrupt the relationship, and corruption always leads to death.