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What does spirituality have to do with everyday life? Paul also tells us of the fruits of this life in the Spirit. They are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). And, he instructs us in I Corinthians 14:1 that we must “pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts.” This essay attempts to bring a new awareness of how individuals, communities and institutions are able to manifest in growing degrees in their behaviors the fruits of an active life in the Spirit. I have come to a realization that the terms Paul uses to describe love and the attributes and behaviors that result in striving for the spiritual gifts all relate to a capacity for healthy interrelationship, something that in today's world we seem so infrequently to be able to achieve, both in our personal and in our communal lives. The attributes and behaviors such as peace, patience, kindness and self-control that Paul describes are, after all, relational in nature. How might they become more easily and habitually manifest in the lives of individuals, and in our institutions and communities? First, we need to understand that while it had a different meaning for St. Paul and the early Christians, historians tell us that since about the 17th century spirituality was associated primarily in Western Christian culture with the inner life of the individual Christian. It also was thought to be a realm reserved for those who were striving for more than ordinary holiness. In this understanding, spirituality was thought to be concerned with such individual experiences as mysticism, ascetic practices, a cloistered lifestyle, prayer and “pious” devotions. The focus was on the “interior life” and seeking “perfection” in God.2 More importantly, spirituality was defined in contrast to anything material or physical; in other words, in contrast to the world around us. It was also thought of as dealing more with “eternal life” than “real” life; and in terms of “individual piety vs. social activity.”3 In recent decades, however, what we, the inheritors of this tradition in the West, have generally referred to as “spirituality” is being redefined and re-conceptualized. One of my favorite definitions of spirituality comes from another BVM, the theologian Anne Carr. In her book, Transforming Grace, Anne has written that spirituality is “holistic, encompassing our relationships to all of creation...to others, to society and nature, to work and recreation” (emphasis mine). Anne also writes that spirituality is “the whole of our deepest religious beliefs, convictions, and patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior in respect to what is ultimate, to God.” She goes on to say: “In relation to God, [spirituality] is who we really are, the deepest self.”4 Some of the things I want to stress in this definition are: 1) that Anne is saying spirituality is not just about prayer, it is also about our thoughts, our emotions and behaviors; every aspect of who we are as embodied human beings; 2) that spirituality is not just about our individual souls, but about how we are in relationship with others; and 3) it is about our “deepest self,” the self not always accessible to our conscious thought. Another modern spiritual writer speaks of spirituality using the image of “health.” Jerome Dollard writes: “Spirituality is a lot like health. We all have health; we may have good health or poor health, but it's something we can't avoid having. The same is true of spirituality: every human being is a spiritual being.”5 This image is important to me because it reinforces the notion that spirituality is something we inherently have as part of our humanness. ‘Real' Life: We Are Connected “You are stardust become conscious.” This simple, five-word statement summarizes the essence of what science today seems to be telling us about the origin and reality of our existence. Literally everything in our Universe goes back to whatever matter and energy emerged from that first explosive moment.6 If there is one overriding theme emerging from the scientific story of the creation of our universe, from the single moment of the so-called Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago, through the eons of emerging galaxies and planetary systems, to the emergence of life on our Earth, it is the message that “ We are connected.” At all levels of our being, some of them yet undiscovered or not fully explored: We are connected; We are connected; We are connected. Interrelationship is inherent to our human experience. In a profound way, this interconnectedness is what is really “real” about our existence. It is also important to note that many contemporary theologians now speak about God as very present in all of our Universe, and our Universe as all very much present in God. The 12th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, reported having a vision in which the Spirit said to her something about this state of presence:
Spirituality and ‘Real' Life This brings us back to the role that spirituality plays in this “real” life of interconnectedness, of interrelationship with God, self and others. First, looking at spirituality from this vantage point helps us to understand that we must talk about spirituality primarily in the context of relationship. The history of human “spirituality” is really the history of our coming to a realization of the relational aspect inherent in our Universe. For millennia, humans have experienced this reality of interconnectedness on our subconscious, unconscious and, if we are awakened to it, on our conscious levels of our being. We are connected, and we know it, at the very core of our being. O'Murchu has suggested that spirituality has been evident in human experience since at least the development of homo sapiens, some 170,000 years ago. He notes that formal religions, on the other hand, have only been around for about the last 6,000 years, a relatively recent development in our human experience.8 Spirituality, then, should be seen as something constitutive of our humanity—it is an innate awareness, both conscious and unconscious, of the very real experience of our interconnectedness with all of creation. If this is true, then spirituality not only will be something only for the very pious or saintly, is not exclusive or elitist, but is something that all of us have—as part of the makeup of our humanness. It is not a commodity that we get when we seek it by going off to a mountaintop or a monastery in search of it. It has been and is within us and is an aspect of our existence, all the time. It is, as Anne Carr suggests, at the depth of our being, and it is what is most “real” about being alive. A healthy approach to spirituality, then, has something to do with our becoming aware of our interconnectedness, our fundamental stance of relationship with God, the whole Earth community and our Universe. Then, in this new state of awareness—and this is where it gets challenging—we have choices to make about living in ways that nourish the relationships between self, God, and others that already exist. Spirituality has not to do with achieving individual “perfection” of any sort. I think trying to ignore or cut ourselves off from our inherent relatedness is our sin. I recently read that the word “devil” comes from a Greek phrase that means “to separate or break asunder.”9 I think of Jesus' final prayer: “That they all may be one” (Jn 17:21). To “pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts,” as St. Paul encourages us, is to live in the awareness of our inherent interdependence—and thereby respond to the spiritual nature of our being—each moment of every day. Endnotes
About the author: Patricia M. Bombard, BVM, DMin., is executive director of the Institute for Spiritual Leadership (ISL) in Chicago. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in spirituality and spiritual leadership and offers workshops, retreats and presentations on contemporary approaches to spirituality grounded in ecofeminism and the new cosmology. Return to Table of Contents. |
Spirituality and 'Real' Life in the 21st Century