"Nobody 'thinks' the spiritual life. They act it out. Both publicly and privately. But it is what we have trained ourselves to do privately that will eventually become the seed of the public self." ~Joan Chittister, OSB
It has been rainy and cloudy the last few days. I find these kind of days refining in some way. They cause me to look inward much like the days of Advent. It is an experience of looking inward, stripping away what can often seem brilliant in the sun light of brighter days. Perhaps it is my Celtic soul that loves the experience of the rain, the clouds, the melancholy they seem to hold.
Whatever the reason, I do love these days for the way they encourage me to reflect on how my spiritual walk is unfolding. I don't know about you but I can often spend so much time reading and studying about spirituality, faith, the arguments for and against my native tradition Christianity, that I forget that the spiritual life is about action. I can keep my walk, my living in the 'student' place……always gathering information for how this spiritual stuff might influence my life…..rather than knowing that, bidden or unbidden God is present.
The spiritual life is then not as much about thinking as it is doing, living. The reality, of course, is that thinking about walking with the Holy is much less risky than actually doing it. Reading about how others have been present to the Sacred's movement in their lives allows me to live vicariously through their experience, but if I go no further, I don't have the joy and the fullness of my own experience, with all that might bring. Living in the moment, staying awake to the dance of the Spirit in the ordinary tasks, the everyday often mundane acts of living takes a certain intentionality that is not easy in a world meant to distract us at every turn. It is all a matter of training and practice.
And yet that is the call of the Spirit in our lives. Stay awake! Look at this! Listen! Touch! Breathe! Feel! I truly believe the Holy One is trying to get our attention at every turn much like a young child trying to show us something new they can do. Look at me ! Look at me! And when, if, we actually jar ourselves out of whatever stupor with which we medicate ourselves, we will be welcomed by surprise and delight at what awaits us.
So, today is Friday, the beginning of the weekend. It could be filled with all kinds of things we need to do. And that's o.k. The good news is that the One we claim to be in all things is waiting in the to-do list, the repairs to be done, the errands to be run, the naps to be taken. Our only work is, not in thinking about the Presence, but in being actually present. And then living the spiritual life becomes allowing each act we do to be infused with the deep knowledge that the One who breathed us into being walks with us.
Lived in such a way, who knows what the weekend might bring!
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