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31/10/2009
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Spirituality
[embodiment]
[labyrinth] [dialogue]
[horizon] [prayer]
[theology]
[Lent reflections 2004]
| Spirituality is not a precise notion. It concerns our response to - and
our engagement with - the invisible, mysterious, realm which is beyond us and
yet which engages us intimately.
Specifically in these pages it refers to the response to God within the
Christian tradition: to the exploration of God as creator and lover of all, of
God as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and as God with us now as the Holy Spirit.
Spirituality itself is, of course, a wider concept than this. It does not require a
belief in God or adherence to any particular religion. It includes the instinctive and
the structured responses we make what is greater than |
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humanity: our responses to beauty, for
example, or to death, to the inescapable uncertainty of life, or to the wonder
of the created world. The religions of the world try, each in their
distinctive way, to respond to what is beyond all of us; to help those who seek,
and to evoke the spiritual in each of us.
Spirituality is about truth. It is about seeing
things as they truly are - about looking life and death in the eye and knowing
oneself truly in relation to them both.
On these pages four metaphors are used for the way in which we engage
with the spiritual:
1. embodiment
We
perceive the spiritual, the transcendent, absolute and
infinite, in small and everyday things in this ordinary life.
The ways the
Church has sought to embody its faith in Ordsall is shown in the pages on
history and well as our present activities. Study groups and
services,
theology and social events are all part of our expression of faith.
In
all these various ways we try to evoke faith and encourage
people on the journey.
2. the
path, journey or labyrinth
Spirituality is always a journey - even when
it has
stalled!
As we grow and change our relationship with
God also grows
and changes. We discover new things and make more sense of what we
know and experience.
And when we stop moving and give up
the journey then we have started to die spiritually.
3. dialogue
Dialogue - talking with one another and, even more importantly, listening
to one another - is a vital part of the spiritual task. Dialogue
is a an intellectual and emotional process by which we grow as
we integrate experience into who we are. [see
the introduction to dialogue sermons]
Dialogue is the way we engage with God: by talking and
listening we share ourselves with God and are changed through
the experience.
4. horizon
But all these could be no more than talking to ourselves,
looking inwards instead of out. Spirituality is also the
attempt to reach beyond our grasp: to stretch out beyond the
limits of our perception, beyond the material and contingent
world to God who is always greater than we can imagine.
These metaphors are not alternatives. Embodiment, journey and
dialogue, are important together in making sense of the spiritual life.
The to reach beyond the horizon is the purpose and the means of a spiritual
life. To
live a spiritual life is to seek to make our beliefs and experience of God real
in the whole of life. That life is ever changing and developing, and our
conversation with God develops at the same time. And talking and listening
to others on their journey whilst respecting the ways they express their beliefs is
what keeps us all going. There is always more to discover beyond our
horizons. As individuals, and as a Christian
community, we discover God and make our faith real together.
[embodiment]
[labyrinth] [dialogue]
[horizon] [prayer]
[theology]
[Lent reflections 2004]
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