Holy Longing

Section Internet Links	Interpreting the Author	Complementing the Author	Discussion Notes	Back to Index
Wayne. Interpreting the Author. It was very helpful to me to be able to take notes on the expectations people brought to this class when everyone had a chance to speak last week. I have sent out the collation of those comments by more than 30 people so that everyone can read them. Jock will be posting them to our site as well. I found it interesting that, while everyone had some opinion about spirituality, we seem to be all over the map in terms of where we are coming from. And perhaps rightly so, because spirituality it a very personal thing. At the same time, many of you speak of wanting to learn from each other, about it in community. That makes spirituality a communal, as well as an individual thing. Then, there were those of you who are seeking some kind of definition for spirituality. I suppose, that like me, you may think that by being able to pin it down rationally with a sentence or so of description, you can get a handle on it. Others talk of spirituality as an experience, or as a mystical experience. How does one rationally describe something mystical, which by its very nature defies description? For the sake of being clean and neat, let me tell you what I think Rolheiser is saying in the first chapter - in seven succinct points. Then, perhaps, we can go on from there and get into more profound meaning. What Is Spirituality? 1. All of us experience the need, the dis-ease, the deep ache of spirituality in our lives. 2. Spirituality is ultimately what we do that that eros, that desire. 3. Everyone has a spirituality. It will be either life-enhancing, or life-destroying. 4. That drivenness is something that everyone possesses (religious or otherwise). 5. Ultimately, for spirituality to be positive and meaningful, it must be channeled. Either spirituality will be creatively integrated into our lives, or it will cause disintegration in our lives. 6. Rolheiser would like to help us integrate that energy in a healthy way. 7. Soul is both the source of spiritual energy and the principle that integrates and individuates that energy within us. (p. 11). Chapter One Summary 1. All of us experience the need, the dis-ease, the deep ache of spirituality in our lives. Some may fault Rolheiser for wanting to move too quickly into disciplining that erotic desire; that passionate energy within us. I would like to applaud him for saying what he does! If there is anything that tends to describe religion (which means at its core - to bind, or discipline) it is that it has had a tendency throughout history to confine rather than to liberate the spirit within people. In Western culture, at least, Catholic and Protestant, religion has had a sad history of confining people. Dominating and intimidating, as one person said last week about his early experience with it. Yet how many books or movies have you read or viewed where there seemed to be far more spirit in evidence in the pubs and the houses of ill repute, than in the churches? Religion, today, has inherited a bad name, and in many respects deservedly so. I will never forget (because it strikes so close to my own experience) the image that Marcus Borg offers in one of his books, in which he describes in a frightening manner the wagging finger of his Lutheran pastor during the confessional liturgies he would endure as a youth. Or, to stay on a Lutheran theme a bit longer, the movies of Ingmar Bergman provide many examples of stern, rigid and frigid Scandinavian Christians - and then, from time to time, some small but hopeful sign that even in that cold region and heavy religious climate, eros tries to break out. It was the Roman Catholic priest, Andrew Greeley, who first created for me to a paradigm shift when he wrote a movie review whose title I forget but this point remained. He said that it was God that planted desire, eros, and passion, in us. Why would God want us to stamp out, repress, destroy, what God Godself had created in us? If you have read any of Greeley¹s novels, you know that his good and bad Catholic heroes and heroines can be pretty lusty. And for good reason. They are only acting out a script for which they were originally programed by Providence. 2. Spirituality is ultimately what we do that that eros, that desire. 3. Everyone has a spirituality. It will be either life-enhancing, or life-destroying. So free will has a lot to do with the human condition, it would seem. We may be created with certain spirit-based drives and passions. But it is up to us to determine what we will do with those energies. In and of themselves, these desires are neither good nor bad. They certainly were not implanted in us by a testing or spiteful Creator. They were grafted into our human natures by a God who trusts us to do good with who we are and by what we do. 4. That drivenness is something that everyone possesses (religious or otherwise). Perhaps you recall the statement that many people still resort to in conversations. "I am not religious," they will say. The implication being, they do not practice a faith by going to church or following any particular ritual or devotion. However, Rolheiser makes it quite clear that when we speak of spirituality everyone possesses it in some form and lives it in some fashion. As one of you also said last week, "everyone has a spirituality, I believe." This leads to an interesting bit of reflection. I will just begin to work on it, and maybe some of you would like to go further in your small groups. It seems to me that God has planted the potential for spiritual goodness in every human being. Is it true that only those who go to church are cultivating their spirituality in a positive way? Or is churchly activity itself rather suspect? - as one of you said last week - I have trouble with what goes on in the sanctuary on a Sunday morning... I fight against churchy stuff... Have some people, perhaps many, found better ways to deal with their innate spirituality than the prescribed religious and churchy practices in our culture? 5. Ultimately, for spirituality to be positive and meaningful, it must be channeled. Either, spirituality will be creatively integrated into our lives, or it will cause disintegration in our lives. 6. Rolheiser would like to help us integrate that energy in a healthy way. Here, I think, we begin to deal with some real issues. Erotic, spiritual energy must be channeled. It must integrated creatively to our lives or else it will cause disintegration. "Integrate spirituality in a healthy way," says the author. What does that mean? Well for one thing, I believe it means that we acknowledge that we are all spiritual; that spirituality is energy; and that it must be dealt with in a healthy and responsible way, or else it can turn against us and lead to our disintegration. To channel energy, and to train it to work positively for us is very different than to try to subdue, defeat, or reject it. I believe that a lot of what has established itself as religion in the past, perhaps in your past, has tried to squelch rather than to enliven and mold spirituality. "Long before we do anything specifically religious at all," says Rolheiser, "we have to do something about the fire that burns within us." (p. 7). "The opposite of being spiritual is to have no energy, to have no zest for living." (p. 11). You may wish to comment in your groups about the three personalities Rolheiser chooses to describe as three different ways of handling that fire. Mother Teresa, Janis Joplin and Princess Diana. 7. Soul - is both the source of spiritual energy and the principle that integrates and individuates that energy us. (p. 11). We need to look more closely at the soul and its meaning and purpose. A healthy soul does two things, the author continues. "A healthy soul keeps us both energized and glued together." (p. 14). The soul has a principle of chaos and a principle of order within it and its health depends on giving each its due. Too much order leads to suffocation. Too much chaos leads to dissipation. So, he says, when you are feeling suffocated, you might want to read or watch: The Bridges of Madison County. When you are feeling dissipated, your better bet might be Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility! The soul within humans links us to the soul inherent to all creation, or the cosmos, says Rolheiser (p. 18). "We have within us spirit, soul. What we do with that soul is our spirituality." And again, "Everyone has to have a spirituality." (p. 18). Questions for Group Discussion: 1. Compare and contrast spirit and soul according to Rolheiser. 2. Discuss what Rolheiser means by channeling spirit energy and disciplining that energy. Do the two terms means the same thing, or are they different? Is discipline a good or a not-so-good word for you?
Jock. Complementing the Author.- Rolheiser says spirituality is what shapes our action, an energy we channel into the disciplines of our living, that integrates us into the cosmic world. And so this book of guidance examines what is uniquely Christian in the process. Clearly then, if spirituality is energy, the Rolheiser sees Christian Spirituality as living the Chirstian life - no less. And if we then are to understand spirituality as energy, we are to understand the "soul" not as something we possess, but as something we are. Our soul is the vehicle of our spirituality, our means of discovery that which makes us alive, that which balances chaos and order. What are other voices that help give meaning to the words "spirituality" and "soul"? What say the familiar voices that are near to us? Marcus Borg agrees with Rolheiser that spirituality is experiential, and not a dimensionless emotion. ...postmodernity is marked by a turn to experience. In a time when traditional religious teachings have become suspect, we tend to trust that which can be known in our own experience. This turn to experience is seen in the remarkable resurgence of interest in spirituality within mainline churches and beyond. Spirituality is the experiential dimension of religion. ... Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. Harper. 2001. p17 For many, spirituality has a strong element of relationship, since our understanding of the divine is often in terms of relationship. It was Martin Buber who so well introduced the notion of relationship into theology with his work "I and Thou". Check out his bio on the study 75 Spiritual Innovators and especially his poem I and Thou: A Tree. The relation to the Thou is immediate. Between I and Thou there is no terminology, no preconception and no imagination, and memory itself changes, since it plunges from singularity into the whole. Between I and Thou there is no purpose, no greed and no anticipation; and longing itself changes, since it plunges from dream into appearance. All means are impediment. Only where all means fall to pieces, encounter happens. Tom Harpur, another respected Canadian religious writer points out that spirituality is rather more a secular word than a religious word today. The word is uncommon in past literature. It is very common today, especially among the non-religious. Essentially, spirituality is about the inner life or spirit of each of us as it relates to the unseen world of Spirit or of God. It's the name we give to the dimension of seeing and living that goes far beyond the material world to deeper truths and eternal values. To be a spiritual person means realizing one's true nature as an expression of the "true Light which gives light to every person who comes into the world," to quote John's Gospel. It includes the profound faith and trust that there is a meaning and purpose to life, that we are destined one day to experience another plane of existence. ... Would You Believe - Finding God Without Losing Your Mind, McLellan and Stewart. 1996. p137 Donna Sinclair, author and editor of the United Church Observer Magazine, points out that we have new partners in spirituality, Native Canadians, and that in their tradition the shaman is a key. We have new aspects of spirituality to learn from them. We need especially to learn to recognize our own experiences of the eternal mystery. We need to share our epiphanies without awkwardness, censure or embarrassment because it doesn't fit available language or the traditional religious paradigm. The ability to travel into the heart of God's mystery - what we would call mysticism - is the gift of the shaman. Shamans are not limited to Native tradition. Jacob was probably a shaman; Jesus certainly was. But if our churches are to rediscover the role of the shaman in spiritual growth, we may have to learn it from our Native brothers and sisters. The fabled "seekers," the ones who yearn for spirituality but don't know where to look, may understand the crucial role of shamans in religious faith without naming them as such. Pointing out the quantities of "paranormal" experiences reported gy Canadians, sociologist Biby ogserves that it is "peculiar" that these experiences are ignored by academics. "As for God," he says, "close to one in two think they have experienced God's presence." And he goes on: "What's peculiar is the extent to which these commonplace experiences have been slow to receive official recognition. Surveys and late-night conversations reveal that ... they are the norm rather than the exception. Yet [these] events have been largely ignored ... by close-minded academics who, frankly, have done us all a seious disservice ..." ... Jacob's Blessing - Dreams, Hopes, & Visions for the Church. Woodlake. 1999. p83/4 A most valued mentor for me is Thomas Moore. His insight into the soul and its healing is unique and powerful. His perspectives on depression were the spiritual bridge by which I found the dynamic of Christian faith again. He is a secular voice with a Christian view. Care of the soul speaks to the longings we feel and to the symptoms that drive us crazy, but it is not a path away from shadow or death. A soulful personality is complicated, multifaceted, and shaped by both pain and pleasure, success and failure. Life lived soulfully is not without its moments of darkness and periods of foolishness. Dropping the salvational fantasy frees us up to the possibility of self-knowledge and self-acceptance, which are the very foundation of soul. ...Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life. Harper-Collins. 1996. p xvi And one last view from another of the exiled Christians, Dr. M. Scott Peck. In the end all things point to God. ... This process involves mystery at its core, but it also encompasses a journey of change, of healing, and of the acquisition of wisdom. On this journey into the other side we may experience a sense of epiphany - those flashes of insight where many things that seemed quite complex begin to make more sense when viewed from a spiritual perspective. ... ... it is imperative that we be open-minded and courageous on this journey. We must gather all our resources - emotional, intellectual, and spiritual - to endure the sense of loss involved in letting go of the barriers to our ability to think paradoxically, to think with integrity. ... The Road Less Travelled and Beyond - Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety. Touchtone. 1997. p 241/2 There we have it. The view from other familiar voices. Each lighting a candle in a dark place. And with each light added we see more clearly.
Discussion **

	Clicking the icon left will activate the e-mail on your machine and direct your comments to us. Comments are welcome and will be posted with usual editorial courtesies.
EMAIL