experiences and to notice where God is amid those experiences. Second, the Matrix
is not rigid or restrictive in categorizing experiences. Rather the four dimensions are
fluid and open-ended. The dashed lines between the four categories visually depict
this and communicate the reality that one’s experience of God in the Interpersonal
dimension can easily overflow into the Structural and vice versa.^21 Indeed depending
upon the focus and the nature of reflection, Ambrose’s experiences could be placed in
virtually any of the four dimensions. Third, the Matrix reminds spiritual directors and
supervisors of the importance of both the affective and interpretive levels of
experience. Therefore, if a person typically speaks of experiences in an affective
manner, that person should be encouraged to consider how those experiences can be
deepened by also paying attention to the interpretive thread of the experience. The
converse is also true; an individual who typically speaks of God at the interpretive
level should be encouraged to deepen or expand those experiences by the affective
component of those experiences. Later a specific occasion of Ambrose’s participation
in the Lord’s Supper will demonstrate his failure to experience the expected affective
level until he engaged in a further interpretive exercise that yielded the desired
outcome. Fourth, this tool recognizes that God is present in every dimension of life,
not just the obvious Intrapersonal or spiritual dimensions.^22 John Bunyan is
representative of the Puritans when he asks, “[h]ave you forgot the Close, the Milk-
house, the Stable, the Barn, and the like, where God did visit your soul?”^23 This
awareness encourages readers to attend to the subtler yet nonetheless important places
in which Ambrose experienced God. Therefore, the goal for this meditative reading
(^21) Keegan, “Spiritual Direction for Justice,” 8, 9, 18 and Liebert, “Supervision as
Widening Horizons,” 133. 22
Liebert comments, “[i]n our culture, what we think of as ‘spiritual’ language is
typically language of the intrapersonal or interpersonal arenas.” “Supervision as
Widening Horizons,” 133 (^23) Bunyan, Grace Abounding to Chief of Sinners-4. (^) , preface [7].