Often, I hear folks say that they are spiritual, but not religious, or that they have a relationship with God, but that they don't need to go to church. Who am I to say that they are wrong? I won't say it. I'll simply say that would not work for me. I have a need to be anchored to a community. In my whole life, I have missed church for a total of perhaps three or four months.
I regularly receive the Abbey Letter from St. Gregory's Abbey, an Episcopal Benedictine monastery in Three Rivers, Michigan. Prior Aelred, who visits around and about in the blogosphere, is a member of the community. The following excerpt is from the abbot's message in the the most recent letter:
A decisive factor that led to my becoming religious as well as spiritual was a dissatisfaction with the eclectic approach. I reached a point where I realized that, in order for my spirituality to be centered, it had to be rooted in a particular religious tradition. My settling on Christianity, however, was not made with the sense that one choice was as good as another. At the time of decision, Christ, who very definitely willed certain things, such as fellowship with me, became very real to me. God’s grace and my choice to give myself to the particular Personhood of Christ were so inextricably entwined that there is no way I can separate one from the other. “Particular” is the key word here. The missing ingredient in spirituality without religion is particularity. Before this conversion, it seemed that believing in an impersonal “god”, whose manifestation on earth was not limited to one holy person, preserved my individuality. The irony is, that it is the making of particular choices in terms of friends, a community, and God that has enhanced my own particular individuality.
One of the particularities of Christianity is that the Holy Spirit makes spirituality religious by binding people and God together. The Holy Spirit is more than “the bond of love” between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is a Person who actively brings the Father and the Son together and also actively brings each one of us, in our own particularity, to the Father and the Son and to each other in that same bond of Love. That Holy Spirit inspires us to love everybody, not in general, but in particular. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit gives us the impossible task of relating personally with billions of people. Rather, the Holy Spirit inspires us to follow Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors. Our neighbors are the particular people who happen to be present in our lives. With the Holy Spirit binding us together with God in this way, there is no room for binding together by way of collective violence. This is how the Holy Spirit makes religion spiritual.
Abbot Andrew in the Abbey Letter, Summer 2008, from St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, Michigan.
UPDATE: At the Episcopal Cafè, Mark Barrett speaks of "presence" in Benedictine life.
I used to read the monastery's publication regularly at my office, then in St. Andrew's, and have since benefited from Prior A's words online.
ReplyDeleteI came to this conclusion as I was returning from Vietnam. There was much that was attractive in Buddhism, but I sensed something particular (my word, too!) that I needed to know first, which was Christ-centered. I would now say centered in the Trinity, but the draw was then was something about Jesus.
I love this quote. I don't want to knock the "spiritual but not religious" people, because sometimes I think they are suspicious of the institutional aspect of religion, which I get. But I do think there is integrity in having a spiritual practice which is a) rooted in community of some sort or another, and b) rooted in a particular faith, rather than a cafeteria approach.
ReplyDeleteI like this quote!
Oh, Mimi, this is a wonderful quotation. Thank you for posting it.
ReplyDeleteThe particularity is what struck me, too, especially the particularity of loving those who are present in our lives, which I sometimes find quite difficult.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased that you liked Abbott Andrew's words.
As someone who spent a lot of time in that "spiritual and not religious" place, I can say that I guess I needed to be there.
ReplyDeleteIt ultimately came to my own acceptance of the invitation of community, which at first I was not thrilled about.
In a rare moment, my will was tamed a bit and I can't ever thank God enough for that.
So to each, may they find their way on their path, but I have come to value and trust that of community most of all.