Oct 16

What is Contemplative Spirituality?

Part three looks at models or paths of spiritual formation. After a description of each, I will reflect briefly and offer a few more guiding questions for your own reflection.

Contemplative Spirituality: A Shalem Senior Staff Monograph

Written by Carole Crumley, Bill Dietrich, Ann Kline, and Gerald May

March 2004

“People express their spirituality, their fundamental loves, in a variety of ways. For example, an ancient understanding in both western and eastern thought says that spirituality expresses itself in the three main ways of knowing, acting and feeling. Christian philosophy associates these ways with attributes of God. God is ultimate Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and these qualities of the Divine draw people along the Way of the True, the Way of the Good, and the Way of the Beautiful. Each of the ways find some expression in everyone, but at any given time an individual is likely to be more attracted to one than to the others.

Each of these ways can be an authentic express of love. The Way of the True, for example, seeks to deepen love through understanding: “…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). For people drawn toward this quality, loving God and neighbor involves intimate knowing and clear understanding. They are interested in theology, philosophy, and psychology. They enjoy thought-provoking sermons and are interested in discerning the accurate meanings of scripture. While this path often relies heavily on intellectual understanding, it also includes openness to intuitive insight and inspired realization.

The Way of the Good expresses love through action, doing the righteous thing, seeking to be of service and to promote justice: “just as you did it to the least of these…you did it to me” (Matt 25:40). People attracted to this quality express their love of God and neighbor by helping the poor, visiting the sick, peacemaking and social action. They have a strong concern for morality, though they may differ widely in the values they hold. In church they are drawn to mission groups and other volunteer services. In scripture, they tend to look for moral guidelines and calls to action.

The Way of the Beautiful experiences love in the form of feelings and devotion: “As a deer longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Ps 42:1). People drawn to this way of especially responsive to the sensory and emotional dimensions of the spiritual life. For them, love of God and neighbor is associated with passion, empathy and intimacy. They are concerned with direct, sensed experience of relationship with God and others and are drawn to praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. They especially appreciate the aesthetic and inspirational aspects of worship and the moving, heartfelt passages of scripture.

It is assumed that as a person grows in the spiritual life, these paths come together in an integrated whole. Even then, though, a person is likely to be more drawn to one way than to the others. Furter, the expressions of a person’s love are likely to change with deepening life experience. One way of understanding the process of growth in love was proposed by the twelfth-century monk Bernard of Clairvaux.

According to Bernard, many people being with the “Love of Self for One’s Own Sake.” Here we try to overcome problems and gain satisfaction in life through our own efforts. Benard maintains that sooner or later we find this doesn’t work. We are unable to control things enough to get what we want and avoid what we don’t want.

This leads most people into the second phase, which Bernard calls the “Love of God for One’s Own Sake.” Recognizing that we cannot manage life on our own, we turn toward the Divine for help. For many people, this marks the beginning of a conscious, intentional spiritual life. Bearnard maintains that one way or another, our prayers for help are answered. It may not happen in the way we expect, but we do recognize God’s grace active in our lives. Then, Bernard says, at some point our focus shifts from the gifts we are receiving to the Giver of the gifts.

Our love becomes more for God’s self than for what God can do for us. This is the third phase, “The Love of God for God’s Sake.” Finally in Bernard’s thinking this love births a new and profound realization. Deeply impressed with God’s goodness and deeply feeling the flow of love, people may begin to recognize how essentially good and loveable they themselves are. This is the beginning of Bernard’s fourth phase: “Love of One’s Self for God’s Sake.” One begins to see one’s own being with fresh eyes, revealing a new beauty and worthiness.

Not everyone experiences the spiritual life as Bernard described it, nor can everyone locate themselves clearly among the three classical paths. If there is a “one right way” for a given individual, it is a matter of God’s unique guidance in that person’s soul. It cannot be prescribed by referring to a model of spiritual growth. Sill, such models can lend a certain clarity to the process of the spiritual life and, more important, affirm that a variety of experiences and attitudes can be authentic.

Further, although most spiritual models seem to indicate a stepwise progression, people’s actual experience is far less linear. “Beginners” frequently have experiences of later stages, and “advanced” people often experiences the early stages. “No one,” say Teresa of Avila, “is so advanced in prayer that they do not often have to return to the beginning.”

While models can be constricting, they are helpful in giving form to something hard to explain like spiritual formation. I appreciate both models presented here for the movement and transformation they describe. My heart resonates most strongly with the truth and beauty paths. They feel like mother languages to me and offer the clearest more accessible connection to the Divine. This is probably why I love worship and books so much. The greater Body of Christ has taught me about the path of righteous action, and I have come to see how each of the three paths nourish the others.

Benard’s model is a little less clear for me. I am inspired by the movement from being self-centered to God-centered and am moved by the idea of loving oneself for God’s sake. Seeing myself, others, and creation as God sees them is something I have glimpsed and would like to grow in. It reminds me of how spending time outdoors and serving unsheltered people have nurtured this type of seeing within me.   

What about you? Does one or more of the classical spiritual paths (truth, goodness, or beauty) resonate with you? How has this informed your spiritual journey?

Which do you recognize in our congregation? How do they inform our congregational life?

Does the movement Bernard described from being self-centered to God-centered resonate with your experience? How? What situations and/or experiences does it make you think of?

Peace,

Pastor Karsten

Oct 08

What is Contemplative Spirituality?

In part two of this series on Contemplative Spirituality, we’ll read another excerpt seeking to define “spirituality” from the introductory essay by staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Then, I will reflect briefly and offer a few more guiding questions for your own reflection.

Contemplative Spirituality: A Shalem Senior Staff Monograph

Written by Carole Crumley, Bill Dietrich, Ann Kline, and Gerald May

March 2004

“The spiritual life is like a deep ocean current, often unseen, but flowing through all our experience, moving us to seek fulfillment and connectedness, impelling us towards truth, goodness and beauty. As William Wordsworth said, it is something “deeply interfused” that “rolls through all things (Lines: Written a few Miles above Tintern Abbey, 1798).”

Spirituality is the living heart of all the great world religions, and each faith tradition in its own way proclaims that the essence of spirituality is love. The Christian expression is in the two great commandments: to love God with one’s whole self and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Thus spirituality is the heart of our desire for fulfillment of those commandments. It is our participation in the love that created us “so that we might seek God” (Acts 17:27).

In a sense, then, spirituality can be considered synonymous with love – not necessarily the feeling of love, nor the good works that spring from love, but the energy of love itself, before it is given any attributes of commentary. As we grope towards finding fulfillment, the fundamental motivating force of spirituality expresses itself in many ways, some simple and creative, and some distorted and destructive.”

Love as the essence of the all the great world religions and spiritual traditions is something I find inspiring. As a Christ-follower, I think it is helpful to realize we are not alone in our efforts but are partners in a great work of love being carried out by many people in many different ways. It is the animating energy common to us all. We respond to it differently, sing different songs, use different languages, create different theologies and worldviews, but the root remains the same, love as an energy moving us toward truth, goodness, and beauty.

This theology calls to me to look at others and our culture more deeply. Instead of the left vs. right dynamic most of us are locked into, I feel led to wonder where love is active in people’s lives and how this may be causing them to act the way they do. Though my Christian spirituality includes special concern for people who are the most vulnerable in our society, asking who or what people love and are trying to protect changes the conversation by inviting a shared vulnerability instead of simply building more walls and shouting louder. While not an easy answer, this shift toward vulnerability and deep listening opens possibilities that did not exist prior.

What about you?

Where have you seen love active in your life or the lives of others? How did it cause you or them to act?

Have you seen or experienced love in different religions or faith traditions?

What similarities and/or differences did you notice?

‘Till next time,

Pastor Karsten

Sep 30

What is Contemplative Spirituality?


As I have mentioned, I recently completed a year-long training for clergy on contemplative prayer and spiritual leadership through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Throughout the year, we read classical and contemporary writings from the Church’s mystics, learned about prayer practices developed by monastic community’s and reflected on how these would fit within congregational life. I am happy to talk about what it has meant for me personally, if you are interested.

In order to shed more light on what I mean by all of this and add more understanding to the spiritual practices I am bringing into worship, I wanted to do a newsletter series on this topic. For the next few weeks, I will take excerpts from an introductory essay written by Shalem staff and briefly reflect on it from my own experience. The first in this series is below.

Contemplative Spirituality: A Shalem Senior Staff Monograph Written by Carole Crumley, Bill Dietrich, Ann Kline, and Gerald May March 2004

A generation ago, most people were uncomfortable talking about their personal spirituality. Now, however, people speak of it so freely that the term itself has become confused; it is difficult to know what people mean when they say it…

Given the variety of interpretations, it is helpful to go back to the original understandings of spirituality as revealed in the traditions of spiritual pilgrims who have gone before us. Their teachings and writings through the centuries are priceless resources in helping us clarify our own experience. It is upon this gathered wisdom that we base the following discussion.

What is Spirituality?

In many traditions, the word “spirit” refers to life-force, the basic energy of being. Symbolically, spirit is the breath of life. The Hebrew “ruah,” Greek “pnuema,” Latin “spiritus,” and Sanskrit “prajna,” all mean both “breath” and “spirit.” Traditionally, this life force is seen as manifest in our love—in our passions and inspirations that motivate us and connect us with the world and with one another.

In this view, spirituality has to do with the fundamental propelling forces of our lives, our most profound loves, passions, and concerns. It is the wellspring of our sense of meaning and of our will to live, the source of our deepest desires, values, and dreams. Spirituality, then, is not a thing apart from our daily lives, but rather the fundamental energy source that fuels all our emotions, relationships, work, and everything else we consider meaningful.

Contrary to popular belief, spirituality is not something special or extraordinary. It is instead absolutely ordinary and completely natural. Everyone has a spiritual life. We express it in many and different ways: not only in places of worship but also in work, community and family, in all our creativity and commitments…

This opening excerpt already raises many important questions as it seeks to clarify what spirituality is.

How may the description of spirit being the “basic energy of being” influence your understanding of God (Emmanuel or God-with-us)?

What are your most profound loves, passions, and concerns? What are your deepest desires, values, and dreams? How do you live these out?

How may knowing these are gifts of the Spirit affect your relationship with God?

After learning this, I “see” God everywhere…in everything. God is in every breath and every molecule. God is in the breeze the flows through the trees. God is in my desire to build community in our fractured culture and teach people about contemplative prayer. God is in our congregation’s concern for the poor and LGBTQ + community. God is everywhere and in everything.

What about you? Does this deepen or shift anything for you? If so, what?

Let me know when you have a chance.

‘Till next time,

Pastor Karsten

Sep 10

Grace and Peace to the Body of Christ in Twinsburg


This week we hear Jesus’s teachings on forgiveness in Matthew 18.
While teaching his disciples about how to live well with others, Peter
asks about forgiveness.

“Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I
forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times,
but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

Bible scholars write that Rabbinic wisdom of this era suggested
forgiving three times, so Peter’s offering of seven times is
expansive. Yet, as Jesus does, he pushes his disciples’ understanding
of divine love even further by saying 77 (or 70 x 7) times.

It is another example of how Jesus seeks to expand our hearts and form
us in the expansive Love of God.

This week we will also experience a sermon form called Living Stories
Sermons. It was created by Episcopal Priest, Peter Levenstrong of St.
Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, CA.

It invites us all (young and old) to bring our life experience to the
stories of Jesus and to share our faith in a safe space with members
of our congregation.

It is one way I see to build up the Body of Christ in faith, hope, and love.

I hope you will join us as we learn from one another what it means to
follow Jesus in our own time and place.

In hope,

Pastor Karsten