Newspaper Page Text
December 24,1981
PAGE 5
Hungering For Spirituality
BY DOLORES R. LECKEY
People are hungry - for bread in many
parts of the world, for God’s spirit in all parts
of the world. This universal hunger can be
seen in the variety of spiritual quests
witnessed in our age.
Some spiritually hungry people prefer to
continue through life, undernourished for a
variety of reasons. Sometimes they are held
back by the mistaken view that a spiritual
person must somehow be different from
ordinary mortals.
declared “all the faithful of Christ of whatever
rank or status are called to the fullness of
Christian life and to the perfection of charity.
By this holiness a more human way of life is
promoted even in this earthly society.”
More recently, the U.S. bishops expanded
this concept in their statement on the laity,
“Called and Gifted.” The bishops noted:
“Lay men and women hear the call to
holiness in the very web of their existence in
and through the events of the world, the
pluralism of modern living, the complex
decisions and conflicting values they must
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1981 By N.C. News Service)
With this viewpoint, spirituality is “out
there” and does not readily mingle with the
flesh and blood routines of daily life.
Another view is that spirituality is esoteric,
for people on the fringes of society. Some
people associate spirituality with the occult
and psychic wonders.
Then there are those who equate spiritual
wholeness with success: power, money,
improved interpersonal relations.
All these viewpoints have serious
limitations.
First, it is important to remember that the
spiritual life does not belong to the chosen
few. The fathers of Vatican Council II
struggle with, the richness and fragility of
sexual relationships, the delicate balance
between activity and stillness, presence and
privacy, love and loss.”
Clearly, church teaching situates the call to
holiness in the midst of ordinary human life.
Spiritual guidance or direction is critical in
the practice of spiritual disciplines: It is a way
of keeping clear that the spiritual way is a
journey to God. A way that is often dark,
filled with contradictions and paradox.
Good spiritual direction reminds us to
heed the warning of the anonymous author of
“The Cloud of Unknowing” who said that
individuals embark upon a serious and
demanding task when they begin to bring
their lives into relation to God. It is a task that
leaves no leeway for self-deception or illusion.
How then does one undertake the spiritual
journey?
The life of Jesus offers the Christian three
basic patterns for growth in holiness, three
strands woven into the fabric of inner life.
1. Solitude. From time to time, Jesus
withdrew to be totally alone, simply and
starkly in God’s presence. Some degree of
solitude has long been recognized as an
essential of the creative life, whether it is
artistic creativity or creative family living or
ministry.
An important part of solitude, of course, is
prayer, full of our own needs and the needs of
our world.
2. Intimate friendship. Christian
spirituality demands the sharing of life and
faith, prayer and work with others. Spiritual
direction, in a one-to-one relationship, is
certainly part of this. Small study and prayer
groups can also be part of spirituality.
The family, neighborhood, parish and
workplace all can become places for spiritual
growth.
3. Public worship. In the gospel accounts
of Jesus, public worship takes a vital place.
The individual and the small group are seen
“on the move,” always headed for Jerusalem,
there to be with everyone in the act of
worship.
It seems to me that participation in a
worshipping community is as important for
Christians as solitary meditation or intimate
sharing with one other person.
At the same time, we cannot encounter the
Jesus of the Scriptures without meeting the
Jesus who reconciles, frees and heals. Inner
spiritual strength and power cannot be
contained; it overflows, touching all who will
accept it.
The spiritual life, then, in Christian terms,
is a whole life. It involves the mind, the body,
the spirit, the emotions.
While we may speak of “my” inner life or
“my” spiritual development, the Christian
begins to realize that the movement of the
Spirit unites all.
The spiritual quest begins now - where we
are - in the messiness of ordinary human life.
PEOPLE ATTENDING the 1976 Call to Action
conference in Detroit join in prayer for the delegates. This
prayer of petition may take on much different meaning
depending on the setting, the mood, the number of people
involved. Prayers can be as varied as those who are praying.
(NC Photo by John Willig)
A Place For Spirituality In Real Life
BY VIRGINIA FINN
One has to ask questions to discover how
carefully Jack O’Donnell has mated
conscience and career. He is not showy about
either commitment.
As president of two companies and
chairman of the board of a third, O’Donnell
runs a marathon in his career. But he also runs
a spiritual marathon, carefully cultivating a
spiritual life. He is intensely committed to
both.
O’Donnell is a layman from Wellesley,
Mass. Today he is a technologist. But from
childhood on, he enjoyed taking things apart.
That skill plus his curiosity in math, physics
and chemistry, led him to earn a doctorate in
chemical engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
According to O’Donnell, what Rome has
been to Catholicism, Boston has been to high
technology. In Boston, early in his career,
O’Donnell secured positions where he worked
on a variety of technical projects such as
developing industrial membrane units to
purify waste waters from industrial plants.
Subsequently, he started three companies
in which purpose as much as profit provides
the rationale. If his companies succeed, the
earth should be a little freer of pollution and
hazardous health risks.
One company is working on a process for
removing sulphur from coal before it is
burned. Another company is developing
processes to destroy toxic organic chemicals
in industrial waste.
What accounts for the kind of career
choices a person like O’Donnell chooses to
make?
Coming from a family with a strong
religious tradition, he credits his
undergraduate education at the University of
Notre Dame for broadening his education in
ways that are important to him now as an
engineer.
O’Donnell has consistently and
deliberately turned down lucrative career
offers that he feels compromise his
conscience.
Over the last 15 years. O’Donnell has
reflected seriously and often on questions
related to his career: “What talents did God
give me and how can I use them?” “What does
God want me to do?”
From his perspective as a Christian,
O’Donnell measures his faith journey not in
terms of years or places but by milestones -
the impact of key people who have affected it
along the way. His family, he says, “has
sought people and places that have fed our
spirit.”
What does a week in O’Donnell’s spiritual
life look like? It includes daily Mass and
Communion at his parish as often as possible.
Twice a week, he works on an intensive
journal where he records his spiritual journey.
Once a week, he engages in a spiritual exercise
along the lines of the spiritual exercises of St.
Ignatius of Loyola.
Since his involvement in a training program
for lay spiritual directors, called LIGHT, at
Campion Renewal Center in Weston, Mass.,
O’Donnell regularly has sought out periods of
reflection with a spiritual director. He also
serves as a spiritual director and is part of a
small group which meets to discuss’
spirituality.
O’Donnell takes time out a couple of times
daily to meditate and pray for 15 minutes.
Referring to this as a dialogue, he says, “I
begin each session by asking the Lord to reveal
himself to me. Then I either move wherever
the Lord leads me or I bring to him a specific
problem and ask him to help me solve it.”
Through his demanding work as a
technologist, O’Donnell influences the world
he lives in. At the same time, in no sense is he
“doing his own thing” alone.
Through cultivation of his spiritual life, he
invites God to share the “thicket of
difficulties that pervade this complex life.”
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE is a whole
life. It involves the mind, the body, the
spirit, the emotions. While we may
speak of “my” inner life or “my”
spiritual development, the Christian
begins to realize that the movement of
the Spirit is not limited to a person or a
group but is, in fact, a movement
uniting all across apparent differences.
(NC Photo by Father Algimantas
Kezys)
Man
With A Withered Hand
Mark: 3:1-7
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
The story Mark tells about the man with
the withered hand is pulsating with dramatic
tension and deep emotion.
It is the Sabbath again and Jesus, faithful
to the essentials of the law, is at the synagogue
service. Also present is a man with a withered
hand, perhaps the victim of a form of infantile
paralysis.
The cast of characters is completed by an
initially unidentified group which introduces
a note of tension. As Mark tells us, these
people “kept an eye on Jesus to see whether
he would heal them on the Sabbath, hoping to
be able to bring an accusation against him.”
One just knows that there is going to be
trouble. And Jesus doesn’t disappoint.
Suddenly he calls out to the afflicted man:
“Stand up here in front! ”
The poor fellow has probably gone
through life carefully hiding his deformed
hand in the loose folds of his flowing cloak. At
the synagogue service he is probably sitting
out of sight in a dark corner.
Now, he is ordered to come up front, in full
view of the congregation, and stand there
while Jesus addresses the group.
Suddenly he hears Jesus talking to him
again: “Stretch out your hand.” Ordinarily,
such a command would have shocked him,
but now he realizes that Jesus did not mean to
ridicule him but to help him.
Hoping and yet not daring to hope, he
stretches out his hand 'and stares
incredulously at it. It is perfectly normal!
Tears of embarassment give way to tears of
relief and joy.
However, all this time the group has been
watching. They feared from past experience
that Jesus intended to heal the man, as he has
healed others, and they were angry.
The effrontery of this man! It was bad
enough for him to break the Sabbath laws in
the seclusion of the grain field, but to flout
those laws publicly, and right in the
synagogue -- this was too much!
Healing was a work, and work was
forbidden on the Sabbath.
Jesus’ answer to their unspoken objections
is not exactly pertinent, but his point is clear
enough: “Is it permitted to do a good deed on
the Sabbath - or an evil one? To preserve life -
or to destroy it?”
Actually, Jesus was not confronted with a
choice between doing a good deed or an evil
one. Not strictly speaking - but to neglect the
opportunity to do a good deed might be
considered tantamount to doing a bad one.
Again, strictly speaking, this was not a
matter of life or death. The man had lived
with the deformity for years; he could have
waited until the next day. But there was an
urgency about Jesus’ mission to combat evil
and he was eager to accomplish it.
Jewish authorities permitted working on
the Sabbath in emergencies and Jesus simply
was extending the principle. The fact that the
group’s only answer was silence indicated that
he had won, again.
At this point, Mark identifies this group as
some of Jesus’ implacable enemies who
“immediately began to plot with the
Herodians how they might destroy him.”
This story is the climax of a series of five
conflict stories. They represent a battle which
goes on all through Jesus’ ministry, and the
ominous decision of his foes anticipates the
final outcome of the battle.
Already we see the shadow of the cross
growing darker across Jesus’ path - which is
just what Mark wants his readers to see.
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. During his life on earth, Jesus gave an example of how to combine an
active life with attention to the spirit. What were some of his methods?
2. In your opinion, why does Dolores Leckey compare hunger for
bread to hunger for God’s Spirit?
3. What is the advantage of finding a spiritual director, according to
Mrs. Leckey?
4. What role does friendship play in spirituality, in Mrs. Leckey’s view?
5. Why does Virginia Finn refer to Jack O’Donnell as a marathon
runner? Do you think the metaphor is apt?
6. In Mrs. Finn’s article, what is one technique used by O’Donnell in
pursuing the spiritual life?
7. What is the point of the story about Jesus curing the man with the
withered hand, according to Father John Castelot?