Spiritual Practices: Tuesday's Reflection

NOTE: I am going to take a brief break from posting in this blog. My plan is to begin posting again on Thursday, October 5, 2017. Watch this space!

I was the speaker at our church's adult forum this past Sunday. My topic was Spirituality 101. During the forum we wrestled with the meaning of spirituality and also explored the ways to engage with spiritual practices. We barely touched the surface, but I am grateful to be part of a community where questions like these are part of an ongoing conversation.


I suggested to the group that the essence of spirituality is the way you experience connection to the sacred aspect of life, the spirit of life. You might connect
                   To your own inner, creative core.
                   To other people.
                   To nature.
                   To God and to the faith we profess.

Or you may connect to any combination of the above. And your spiritual connection may change throughout your lifetime.

Thomas Hart, a spiritual writer and family therapist, suggests that  where the action of our life is, God is present and active with us. 

That means God is in the car pool with us when we take kids to school or at the kitchen sink when we wash dishes or when we collapse into a chair hoping to read a few pages in a good book before a nap overcomes us. It also means God is with us in the challenges, the big ones --caretaking an elderly loved one, facing a health crisis in ourselves, losing a job, becoming an empty nester, wondering what the purpose of our life is now that we no longer can do what we have always done. The list goes on. 

The key question is: How is God moving in my life right now? How and when do I feel and know the presence of God? 

These are spiritual questions. 

So much more I could say and perhaps I will as time goes on, but I want to close todays's post by quoting Anthony de Mello's take on spiritual practices.

          Is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?
          As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning?
         Then what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?
         To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.

An Invitation
What would it look like to live more spiritually right now? I would love to know.