How do spiritual traditions help our own spirituality?
Revd Jim Florance, diocesan co-ordinator of spiritual direction, continues his series on Spirituality
Spirituality concerns and embraces the whole of life and is not just about a person’s interior and inward life. The late Gordon Wakefield suggests spirituality ‘is as much for the body as the soul’. Of course, spirituality is not restricted to Christianity as some would have us believe. All religions have their spiritualities, but it is also important to recognise that not all spiritualities bring us nearer to God.
Ebb and Flow: St Cuthbert’s island, Lindisfarne, is accessible by foot at low tide but cut off at high tide. Cuthbert would retreat there for times of quiet prayer with God before returning to the busyness of monastery life - a good model for us to follow. Where is your equivalent of ‘Cuddy’s Island’?
Christian spirituality is uniquely inspired by the revelation of God in Christ and is lived out in the fulfilment of our Lord’s command as revealed in scripture: to love God and our neighbour and, indeed, to love all creation. Over the centuries, Christian theology and spirituality have undergone many changes as some people, in a desire to seek and deepen their relationship with God through Christ, have pushed the boundaries of their understanding of their faith in new directions and into new realms. In so doing, they have entered new dimensions in their relationship with God and discovered more of his purposes for them. Others, on the other hand, were pulled back to what they had been originally taught and received, which was their place of safety and security. This movement has been, and continues to be, an essential element for personal spiritual growth and also part of the church’s development.
Just as the ebb and flow of the tide continually reshapes the coastline, so the insights of both past and present faith explorers influence succeeding generations. As a result of this ebb and flow, the Christian church has been able to embrace a wide variety of writings and teachings which have now become an accepted part of the Christian tradition. Laurie Green, in his book Let’s do Theology, suggests that "a holy spirituality might be understood to mean that state of affairs whereby people become so open to the transforming touch of God in their total experience that other people become hungry for God when in their ‘company’.” [My italics]
For me, the ‘company’ to which Bishop Laurie Green refers includes not only our encounter with God through today’s saints and seekers, but also the company of all the saints over the centuries who have passed on their insights through their teachings, writings and lives, from the first followers of Jesus through to the Desert Fathers, and well-known saints such as Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich and, in more recent times, Bonhoeffer, Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Underhill and many others. Each in their way has contributed to the broad spectrum of spirituality embraced by all faiths and denominations.