The Most Saving Path. On Guidance in Spiritual Life

Many believers complain that they do not have a spiritual guide. They dart from one church to another, from one priest to another. This happens due to ignorance of the laws governing spiritual life. For a believer, every priest to whom they approach for confession or to receive other sacraments of the Orthodox Church is a spiritual guide. One woman wrote to St. Theophan the Recluse, complaining that she had no spiritual guide. He replied, «How can you say that? Where do you confess and receive communion? Which church do you attend for service? There is your spiritual guide...» The situation is different with a spiritual mentor. Here we should choose the most experienced, the most skillful in spiritual life, since any priest can absolve sins, but only one of the few can teach spiritual life. 
As the holy fathers advise, before choosing a spiritual mentor, one should make sure that their life corresponds to God's commandments, and their words are firmly based on Holy Scripture and patristic tradition.