Conversations on the Spiritual Life

Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?
What does it mean to be a disciple?
How do you know you are a disciple?
How does that affect your life?
Why are you a disciple?

Catholics have what has been called "a conspiracy of silence."  Somehow, we have learned to be suspicious of those who talk about the faith and the spiritual life.  It seems "Protestant" to us to be too verbal about our faith.  I suspect part of this culture emerges from the great depth of our faith: we don't know how to express the depth of which we ourselves are barely aware.  Ron Rolheiser once said that the best things cannot be talked about, so we are forced to talk about the second-best things.

The problem of not approaching Catholic conversations, however, is that we often do not ourselves do not really know what we think or believe.  We do not know how to uncover the great treasures that lie within our souls.  I think we might be surprised to find what lies within us -- the Pearl of Great Price -- if we allow ourselves to open the treasure box!

The Bible is a book of stories, not of doctrines.  One of the problems of our modern day is that we have over 50,000 dominations who cannot agree on doctrine, even though they all read and agree on the same stories.  I think we need to ask ourselves how those stories connect with our lives, with our own stories. 

Every single person on the planet has at least one story to tell, but there are few ears who want to hear that story.  We are focused on the world around us -- on the athletes, on the movie stars, on the advertisements.  Few of us are focused on the spiritual life, on what God is doing in us.  God is not "static;" He is present to our world and present in us every single moment, every single day.  And if He is present, He is acting; He is dynamic.  It is our supreme joy to be able to "see" what He is doing.  Jesus said, "What I see the Father doing, that is what I do."  As He opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, He is so willing to do the same for us-- so that we can see and hear the work of God in us and in the world around us.

I wonder if there is a way to even haltingly begin to talk to one another about what God is doing, has done, in our lives.