A Metaphysical Musing: What Is Spirituality?
by: Rev. Peter Lanzillotta
email: revpel@mindspring.com
Part I of many....
We are part of a glorious cosmic dance which is always going on. It beats in the life blood of all of us even if we do not know it. The purpose of the spiritual life is to help us to learn how to remove the obstacles that stand between us and the union we already have with God [good; source of all; etc.]. This means that we don't search for something that is foreign to us, but uncover that which we already have.An Invitation to the Spiritual Journey, John P. Gorsuch
When asked to define elusive terms such as spirituality, we have to rest on the shoulders of the inclusive world religious traditions, just as we have to take personal responsibility for shaping and mining modernity for new ideas, and courageously investing in and exploring new working paradigms. Here is a first attempt, a brief synopsis, of what can be meant by spirituality.
To be spiritual, at its root meaning, is to be vital — to possess and express life. The origins of the word, spirit, are intimately connected to breath, wind, energy, creativity and movement. In that regard, we can call spirituality a non-mechanical and unconfined energy; a freely expressive, compassionate way of living; an active orientation toward the deep self and the gracious affirmation of the connections to the deepest parts of all humanity and the all of Creation.
As expressed in our humanity, a spirit–filled life is one that is inner-directed; one that moves us from the busy, often preoccupying external, imposed or superficial demands of our lives, into an abiding regard and a ongoing respect for our inner wisdom, our soulful dialogues, our interior truths. Whenever we learn to listen to the stirring of wisdom, conscience, and connect our actions to these guiding principles, we make progress in embodying and understanding the spiritual approach to life.
Spirituality, then is the motive power behind and within our lives that moves us toward a deeper consideration for who and what we are, and toward an affirmation of our place in the Cosmos. World spirituality teaches that our rightful place is not in differences and contradictions based in ego or culture. Our place side by side equal with all other humans, as a caretaker and preserver of eco-justice, personal dignity, freedom, and acting as if we committed to a Universalist point of view: we are all saved- or nothing will be saved; all life is holy or sacred; or none is; that all life is sacramental- worthy of our compassion, and care.
Spirituality is often defined as being different, even opposed to religion. Part of this adamant distinction comes from equating religion with rules and regulations of belonging, with ascribing to and asserting certain theological beliefs, and condoning certain practices while excluding all others. Many people define or at least associate spirituality with a more free flowing personalized search for one's answers. However, spirituality contains a deep resonance with ethics and justice; spirituality also holds us accountable. One cannot be a dilettante or an impostor and truly be connected to an authentic spiritually inspired life. Spirituality is intimately connected to our sustaining sense of community. If there are no shared ideals, nothing held or believed in common, community disappears and spirituality is understood as absent.
Spirituality propels us on our individual quest; it also forms the feelings bond of affiliation and affection that hold communities together. That which is of the Spirit, then, can be defined as whatever is deemed sacred, true, love and respect worthy for the individual, for their community, and for their world. To be spiritual is to pay reverent attention to the holy within, between, among and beyond us all.
What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual direction is a learning process of attuned listening....(In fact, the first rule of St. Benedict is to listen)...whereby one learns to listen to the interior questions and their intuitive answers. It is a relationship of affirming the true and beholding the good. It is facilitated by working with a director who is alternatively known as your “soul friend.” With this person, you walk together — as companions on a spiritual journey of self discovery, grace and revelation. It is a sharing in the search for the deep self where we engage our longings, seek to heal our wounds, and discover our wonders.
In this relationship, there is an active, continual, and gracious acknowledgment that we live most fully in a tri-alogue. Adding in a correspondence with a God — Spirit of your knowing and understanding — is to disclose the hidden sacred dimension of life and its many facets. In that sense, spiritual direction is a covenant of caring for one's life and for God's place and presence within it. It is an appreciation, and appraisal of one's life story, its struggles, its challenges, its promise and its blessings.
Spiritual direction is the relational process of discovering how and in what ways the Holy — that which has sacred dimensions and sacred meanings — influences and guides your understanding, your motives, values, and deeper sense of self. Classically, spiritual direction asks you about the directions God is taking you in your life. I prefer to ask where are you taking God? Into what parts, portions, or facets of your life?
A Spiritual Director or Soul Friend has a distinctive role to play in your path towards wholeness and holiness. Or if you are more psychologically oriented, towards self-actualization and the process of becoming an authentic person.
As a resource peson, a Spiritual director offers you insights for your consideration, discernment for your comprehension, and suggests possible paths and ways toward wholeness/integration in your personal search for meaning. Often spiritual disciplines, devotional reading, and other meditative and physicalexercises that will refine your attunements to the inner callings of the Spirit are empahsized, thereby assisting you towards making those stirrings and wonderings ever more present, and more widely accessible.
Who is a Spiritual Director?
Your spiritual director is generally not your pastor or your colleague. She or he is rarely if ever your confessor — in the sacramental tradition — nor would your psychotherapist be your spiritual director. While there may be parallels and important links with psychotherapy, especially to a depth psychology such as Jungian analysis, participating in Spiritual Direction is not therapy nor is therapy a substitute for Spiritual Direction.
What makes them different?
Most often, the most distinguishing factor is the agreed on continual reference to or acknowledgment of the sacred at both the start and the end of a session. There is a constant or continual reference to the tri-alogue as alive and operating as a source of motives, values, virtues, and directions for your life. This acknolwedgement can come in many ways....from a prayer, to a chant, from silence to bells, to a chalice lighting and a devotional reading. Its value is to engage and welcome the presence of the Holy by one's sacred intention during the meeting which is conducted in a constant atmosphere of sacred intention, reverence, and spiritual intimacy. Which, by the way is not pious, and can include humor, and discuss topics that might be considered to be religiously taboo!
Because Spiritual Direction presumes a certain level of emotional and mental health, it does not dwell on systems or symptoms — so it doesn't ordinarily look for cures or even rational explanations. Instead, Spiritual Direction assumes a wholeness, a wellness, and an integrity that will be further disclosed by God's grace and the Spirit's unfoldment. The goal of Spiritual Direction is to allow for and to facilitate a deepening, a ripening, a revealing.
Directors ask: Where is God or the Holy for you? Where in your experience have you felt its presence and effects? How can you learn to allow more of God, the Good that already is, into your life and into your heart?
Oftentimes, we seek out Spiritual Direction because we are currently feeling as if something is missing, lacking, unknown or unfulfilled in our lives. Spiritual Direction teaches us to honor those longings, those yearnings, that hunger and thirst NOT as emotions of lack or frustration, but as a gracious impulse within you that acts as an invitation to go more deeply, and to know more fully.
Not everyone who can act effectively as a spiritual facilitator for you has to be a trained professional. But a professional will have the best capacity of staying with you, walking with you over time, experience, circumstance, and revelation and provide you with a sustained relationship or companionship. Classically, one cannot be trained to be a spiritual director unless they are first inner-directed. That is, unless they first receive the charism and the gift of the Spirit as a significant part of their vocational call. They are given the gift of discernment which they will use in guiding and assisting others along the spiritual path. Being well educated is not a protection or an assurance that you will receive good quality of care. It is however, a reliable measure that they will be able to understand or comprehend the many descriptive languages and various paths one might pursue. From that place, there is an extended period of training or refining- a skill based awareness one can receive that attunes and refines that spiritual gift.
Your spiritual director need not be of your own faith tradition. And most often in the USA, they come from a sacramental tradition that recognizes spiritual gifts and spiritual disciplines such as the Episcopal, the Orthodox, and the various kinds of Catholic traditions. The main point here is that you feel respected, that the stirrings of your heart can be heard and that an essential relationship can be formed between you.
Some Mechanics and Practical Considerations:
Usually, Spiritual Direction is conducted on a 1X a month basis. If it is a particularly crucial time in a person's life, it could occur more often.
The cost is variable. It will range from a good will donation to a regular sliding scale fee. If this is a part of a director's livelihood, then they will set a fee.
Some styles of direction are gentle, patience, and offer much forbearance. Others are more directive, and many directors supplement their work by offering their clients selected and directed readings, meditation and other disciplines, and might recommend weekend or extended sessions and intensive workshops.
Any questions?????