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 Spirituality can be defined as what we do with the fire inside us, as how we channel our energy.  And how we channel it, the discipline and habits we choose to live by, will either lead to a greater integration or disintegration within our bodies, minds,and souls, and to a greater integration or disintegration in the way we are related to God, others, and the cosmic world. (The Holy Longing, p. 11).

Spirituality is what we do with our spirits, our souls.  A healthy spirit must do two jobs:  

(1) It has to give us energy, or fire, so that we do not lose our joy of living, and (2) it has to keep us glued together, integrated, so that we do not fall apart and die. "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?"    Someone who suffers the loss of his soul has lost his identity, so that at some point, he or she does not know who he/she is anymore.  A healthy spirit keeps us both energized and glued together.  

Our soul is not something we have; it is who we are!  When cynicism, despair, bitterness, or depression paralyze our energy, part of the soul is hurting.  When we no longer know where we are going, who we are, or where we came from, it is the other part of our soul that is limping.  

When Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God," He was telling us how important the soul -- or our spiritual energy-- is to our lives.  There comes a moment in every life when we must stop and ask ourselves how we are nourishing our spirit.  Much, if not most, of our life consists in nourishing the body, and perhaps the mind.  But what about our spirit?  What is it that renews our energy at the deepest level and helps us to hold together all the parts of our lives that threaten to pull us apart?

Padre Pio once said, "I shudder to think of the harm done to souls by the lack of spiritual reading!"  Our religious practices of going to church, singing hymns, praying, etc. may be a start, but unless we renew our spirits with soul prayer, spiritual reading, and simple contemplation of nature/beauty/wisdom, etc. we run the risk of giving our souls pablum instead of real food.

Life tends to pull us in multiple directions --- all of them good, sometimes, so that we can no longer decide how or where to draw the line on our energy resources.  Our lives need wisdom, peace, and guidance to keep us from falling apart --- and, according to the book of James, God will lavishly give wisdom to those who ask Him (James 1:5).  He never intended for us to slough through the mire on our own; He always intended to be with us a Full Partner in this business of preserving our souls!

What is "Spirituality"?

 Ronald Rolheiser, one of my favorite writers, has a wonderful book called The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality.  I happened to read this book many years ago when I was teaching the 11th grade Confirmation class, and I used his insights as the basis for my teaching for a long time.  One of my students wrote, after the first class that year, "This seems more like a philosophy class than a religion class."  My answer to her was, "It takes an astute mind to recognize philosophy when she sees it!"

Now, re-visiting this excellent book, I would like to highlight some of Rolheiser's insights for other astute minds to enjoy.  Certainly, his words have given me much to think about!

Spirituality is not something on the fringes, an opton for those with a particular bent.  None of us has a choice. Everyone has to have a spirituality and everyone does have one, either a life-giving one or a destructive one.....Spirituality is not about serenely picking or rationally choosing certain spiritual activities like going to church, praying or meditating, reading spiritual books, or setting off on some explicity spiritual quest.  It is far more basic than that.  

Spirituality is more about whether or not we can sleep at night than about whether or not we go to church.  It is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely, about being in harmony with Mother Earth or being alienated from her.  Whether or not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any expicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter.  What shapes our actions is our spirituality. 

When we act, what we do will either lead to a greater integration or disintegration within our personalities, minds, and bodies -- and to the strengthening or deterioration of our relationship to God, others, and the cosmic world.

Rolheiser offers three well-known examples of spiritual lives:  Mother Teresa, Janis Joplin, and Princess Diana.  Mother Teresa, he says, was a dynamo of energy, despite her diminutive appearance.  She was a human bulldozer, dedicated to God and the poor.  She channeled her energy in a creative, life-giving way, and that total dedication was her signature, her spirituality. 

According to Rolheiser, few people would have considered Janis Joplin, the rock star who died from an overdose of life at 27, a very spiritual woman.  And yet she was.  Like Mother Teresa, she was an exceptional woman, a person "of fiery eros, a great lover, a person with a rare energy."  However, her energy, unlike Mother Teresa's, went out in all directions and eventually created an excess and a tiredness that led to an early death.  But those activities --a total giving over to creativity, performance, drugs, booze, sex, coupled with the neglect of normal rest--were her spirituality.  This was her signature.

Most, of us, according to Rolheiser, are more like Princess Diana than either Mother Teresa or Janis Joplin.  Usually, we tend to see other people as one or the other, but not as both erotic and spiritual.  And yet, Princess Diana reflects both dimensions.  She obviously had great fire within her; people were drawn so powerfully to her: "her energy, more so than her beauty or her causes, is what made her exceptional."  She was a person who willed God and the poor, even if she still willed many other things also.

Spirituality is what we do with the spirit that is within us.  For Princess Diana, her spirituality was both commitment to the poor and the Mediterranean vacations...and all the pain and questions in between.  She chose some things that left her more integrated in body and soul and others which tore at her body and soul.  Such is spirituality.  It is about integration and disintegration, about making choices about living and living with what that does to us.

More reflections tomorrow......