The Center for Spirituality and Justice began to take shape in 1979 out of a question: how does the ministry of spiritual direction remain true to itself and, at the same time, relate to the issues of justice in society? The first program was small, with one director and eight participants, all interested in exploring the use of spiritual direction in their ministries. By the third year the team had grown to three members. Justice issues became more and more central as the team began to reflect on national and global news as part of the spiritual direction training.

Over the next thirty-one years there were many milestones. A significant one early on was the development of a tool, called "The Experience Cycle," used to train spiritual directors to become attentive to God's revelation and transforming action in the structural arena of human experience as well as in the individual and interpersonal arenas. As team members became active in the development of the newly formed organization, Spiritual Directors International (SDI), they were able to share this tool with spiritual directors throughout the country and even the world.

Rather than a specific place, the Center for Spirituality and Justice was a team of co-directors who held the training program in donated meeting space in the Bronx and later in New Rochelle, NY. The various Center co-directors have worked to develop the practice and skills of spiritual direction through an instructional and experiential program involving supervision.

The Center's name underlines the attempt of the program to raise consciousness of spiritual directors to integrate ways of transforming social and environmental structures into their own spirituality and that of their directees.

As the team has changed in number (as few as two and as many as seven) so has the makeup of the participants in the program. At first the program attracted members of religious congregations. By the third year three lay women registered and the number of lay persons continued to climb, until lay women and men completing the program now exceed one quarter of the over three hundred and fifty graduates.

In the Spring of 2010 the Center for Spirituality and Justice has been pruned and grafted. The Center no longer exists as a stand alone ministry. However, the Spiritual Direction Training program and spirit of the Center has moved and morphed to become a part of Carmel Retreat. The germ that had taken root and grown for years in New York has had a branch removed and grafted to be a part of Carmel's Garden across the Hudson. May God continue to bless the Training Program, its participants and directees with an abundance of fruit.