November 20, 2015

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

Religion and Spirituality?

It used to be that Religion came first and

then one found forms of Spirituality in the

structure of that particular religion. That’s

not true anymore for many younger people….

Religions - Judaism, Catholicism, Lutheranism,

have been dropped. Then folks drift for a while -till they realize their need spiritual practices:

walks on the quite side - by the water - meditation, book clubs - running - breathing - Yoga - music - volunteering - therapy - massage - body work....

Religions  - then some try new religions - and

some in doing so discover God - prayer - worship - community - and some come home 

to their handed on religion - which they see 

in a new light - graces and warts and all. 

They have begun to discover  they can’t do 

life alone - without God in the Center 

because as Thomas Merton put it years ago,

“The spiritual life is oriented toward God ….

[which] puts us in the fullest possible contact

with reality - not as we imagine it, but as it

really is. It does so by making us aware of

our own real selves, and place them in

the presence of God.” [Author’s Note: this can be found in No Man is an Island. p. ix - x.]

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015