Spirituality – 1
Dear Friends,
I have decided to do a few columns on the topic of spirituality.
In Catholicism and much of Christianity, and, I think, in other faith traditions also, this has become a major focus over the past fifty years.
And it should be!
Why? Because we all have a spirituality, whether we know it or not.
What is spirituality?
The place to begin is with the longing that is within us.
We all have a longing within us.
This longing is implanted within us, part of our very being.
It is a longing for more, which we may for a long time identify as a longing for something more.
In fact, it is really a longing for someone more, but Someone spelled with a capital S.
It is a longing for God.
Father Ronald Rolheiser, a very fine Catholic theologian, says that spirituality is what we do about this longing or this desire for God.
That is a helpful and easy way to understand this.
My own homemade definition of spirituality is this:
an inner sense of God and myself and of our relationship, along with my expressing this in prayer and in the way I live.
Notice that I begin my definition with the word inner.
Spirituality means that we have an inner life.
This is very important, but it can be difficult to have in our culture.
In our culture, lots of sound or noise and lots of activity draw us out of ourselves. An effect of this is that we are never led to go inside, to go within ourselves, and to be attentive to our inner life.
We need an inner life to have a spirituality.
In the upcoming Inbox Inspirations, I will look at five elements that I see as core for this inner life and for a Christian (Catholic) spirituality.
They are: 1) Faith, 2) Prayer, 3) Habit, 4) Connectedness, and 5) Beauty.
Gracious God, help us to remember: our hearts are restless until they rest in you! Amen!
Father Michael Schleupner
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Spirituality – 2
Dear Friends,
The first core element of a spirituality may seem so obvious that we would not even have to say it.
It is this: we need at least a basic faith about life, about God, and about some of the particulars relating to God and us.
So, each Sunday at Mass, we offer the Profession of Faith: that there is a God, that God is Father and Creator, that God’s Son took on our humanity, suffered, was crucified and rose from the dead, and that God remains with us through the Holy Spirit.
We also profess our faith in the catholic Church – catholic spelled with a small c, meaning universal or global – and in the resurrection of the dead.
So, we’ve got some core beliefs, and these are the building blocks of our spirituality.
One of our Catholic theologians makes an interesting observation about our Profession of Faith.
He points out what he calls the great comma – the great comma.
In our Creed, we speak of Christ, and we say that he was ..."conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…”
Notice: we jump from Jesus’ birth to his death and skip all that was in between.
We unfortunately skip so many essential pieces of the gospels.
For example, we also need to include in our belief the Beatitudes, Jesus’ blueprint for the kind of person we are to become, like: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Also, we must also assent to and live Jesus’ ultimate criterion for being a disciple: “Whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, that we do for him.”
So, faith, an inner faith, a faith expressed in our Creed, and a faith that includes essential pieces in the gospels – this is fundamental to our spirituality.
See my Inbox Inspirations from last week, June 10, for the introduction on Spirituality, and stay tuned in the coming weeks for more on this topic.
Gracious God, help us to remember: our hearts are restless until they rest in you! Amen!
Father Michael Schleupner
When this series on Spirituality concludes, my plan is to do several reflections on Racism – probably beginning on July 22.
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Spirituality – 3
Dear Friends,
Last week I reflected on faith as the first core element of spirituality.
Today my attention turns to prayer as the next core element.
Fundamentally, prayer is our consciously or intentionally being with God.
Some kind of personal prayer needs to be part of spirituality.
And notice that I am speaking of personal prayer.
This is in addition to Mass and other sacramental or communal prayer experiences.
There are three basic types of personal prayer.
First, there is Verbal Prayer – prayers like the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Lord’s Prayer, and books of contemporary prayers.
These are pre-set prayers, prayers composed by another that we now pray.
Second, there is Meditative Prayer.
This is our conversation with God.
Here we make time for God to speak to us, especially in a passage of the gospel.
We reflect on this, and then we speak to God about it and how it relates to our life.
Finally, there is Contemplative Prayer.
Here our prayer is mostly silence – just being quiet and alone with God.
It’s almost like just showing up and letting God do the rest.
As I said, some kind of personal prayer is a core part of spirituality.
Probably all of us already have some form of Verbal Prayer in our lives.
And so, I recommend that we consciously make space for some Meditative and some Contemplative Prayer.
Meditative Prayer, especially when it includes the gospel, keeps our faith – the first ingredient for spirituality – it keeps our faith alive and growing.
And Contemplative Prayer – if just a few minutes of silence at some point in the day – it assures that we have an inner life.
See my Inbox Inspirations from the last two weeks, June 10 and 17, and for the next three weeks for more on this topic of Spirituality.
Gracious God, help us to remember: our hearts are restless until they rest in you! Amen!
Father Michael Schleupner
When this series on Spirituality concludes, my plan is to do several reflections on Racism – probably beginning on July 22.
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Spirituality – 4
Dear Friends,
In the past three weeks, I have reflected on Spirituality and on two of its core elements: Faith and Prayer.
Today my attention turns to the next core element: Habit.
If we think about it for just a second, we all have habits in our everyday lives.
When I get out of bed in the morning, I brush my teeth and shave and shower and get dressed – all of this out of habit.
It is estimated that 40 to 50% of the things we do in everyday life are out of habit.
A habit can be defined as any practice that we do regularly and routinely with little or no effort of the mind or the will.
So, it is something that we do without having to think about it or having to decide whether to do it or not – something that we have come to do automatically.
I am recommending that we work at developing a habit – if we don’t already have it – a habit of daily, personal prayer.
To do this, we need a time, a place, and a type of prayer.
Select a regular time of day that will work for you.
Maybe first thing in the morning before you really get the day started;
or maybe in the later part of the afternoon when you get home from work;
or maybe in the evening before going to bed.
And then, a place.
Maybe in your bedroom or somewhere in your home or apartment or condo where you can be alone for a few minutes and where it will be at least somewhat quiet.
And then, of course, we need to select the type of prayer.
Check out last week’s Inbox for ideas on this.
So, develop a habit of prayer; it is essential for spirituality.
See my Inbox Inspirations from the last three weeks, June 10, 17 and 24, and for the next two weeks for more on this topic of Spirituality.
Gracious God, help us to remember: our hearts are restless until they rest in you! Amen!
Father Michael Schleupner
When this series on Spirituality concludes, my plan is to do several reflections on Racism – probably beginning on July 22.
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Spirituality – 5
Dear Friends,
In the past weeks, I have reflected on Spirituality and on three of its core elements: Faith, Prayer, and Habit.
Today my attention turns to the next core element: Connectedness.
On the one hand, spirituality is an inner reality – our sense of God and of self.
On the other hand, it also has an outer dimension – involving relationships.
Spirituality includes our connectedness with others.
I see this on several levels.
There is my immediate family and close friends:
the time I give to them, whether I am faithful in my commitment and loving in my words and actions – these qualities are important for human relationships.
And, they are also part of spirituality.
Then there is the big picture level:
my care for the common good of all God’s children on this earth is also part of my spirituality.
And finally, this connectedness also needs to get expressed in a faith community.
Worshiping with others, going to Mass, celebrating and receiving the Eucharist together – this is important.
The Bible and our theology tell us that God came to save us as a community, a people, all of us together, not just me personally in isolation from others.
Choosing not to live my relationship with God in a community of faith may lead to my becoming very narrow in my vision.
It could even lead to my becoming self-focused.
This, I believe, is the real risk of those who say they are spiritual but not religious. So, connectedness with a faith community is also an ingredient of spirituality.
See my Inbox Inspirations from the last four weeks, June 10, 17 and 24, and July 1, and for next week for more on this topic of Spirituality.
Gracious God, help us to remember: our hearts are restless until they rest in you! Amen!
Father Michael Schleupner
When this series on Spirituality concludes, my plan is to do several reflections on Racism – probably beginning on July 22.
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