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
