FAQ

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1. What is spirituality? the spiritual life?
2. Is spirituality different from religion?
3. What are some common barriers created by religion?
4. What is prayer?
5. What is contemplation? Is it the same as meditation?
6. What would a Contemplative/Active life look like?
7. What is Centering Prayer?
8. What is Praying With Scripture?

1. What is spirituality? the spiritual life?

The popular word “spirituality” focuses on our experience of the Divine in all of life. It has to do with responding to events and circumstances in a way that blesses one’s life and the world.

Spirituality by itself can seem a private thing, as when a person speaks of “my spirituality.” The 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart said, “There is no such thing as my bread, only our bread.” It is important that the way we experience God connects us to communities of other pilgrims and to the needs of the world. Since spirituality is not separate from life, we can make it more definite and concrete by giving it a context: “spiritual life,” “spiritual formation,” “spiritual community,” “spiritual work,” “spiritual practices.”

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2. Is spirituality different from religion?

“ I’m a spiritual person but I’m not religious.” Usually this means, “I am seeking God or I want to be more loving, but I am not interested in the doctrines or structures of organized religion.”

The original meaning of “religion” is positive: “to bind together,” from the same word as “ligament.” Just as the human body cannot exist without the connection and cooperation of each part, so growing as a spiritual person requires the company of other seekers.

Because of the abuse of the word “religion” (see Barriers, below), it may be better in many cases to substitute the expressions “faith community,” “spiritual companions,” or “gathering of seekers.”

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3. What are some common barriers created by religion?

Seekers struggling toward a more spiritual life often encounter some of these issues:

* Outdated God-talk. Traditional religious language and images get in the way.
* The Buddhist on your street. “Far away is now next door.” Simplistic stereotypes won’t work: The atheist helps the widow down the street.
* The end of OTC (Only True Church). Is Jesus the only way? Is there a Chosen People?
* The explosion of knowledge. The information age creates spiritual confusion.
* The sacred/secular split. How can we begin to heal perceived incongruities like sex and spirituality, having money and being compassionate?
* Suffering. The age-old question is more stark than ever: How can there be a “Love Supreme” in the wake of the Holocaust? of Viet Nam? and now 9/11? the Enron debacle?
* “The Bible says so.” Many are asking, “Really?”
* Lack of permission to question—or share experiences. AA gives permission in the church basement, but not during the service in the sanctuary above.
* Pain caused by religion. Church sexual scandals and violence in the name of religion only confirm the attitude of many: “Religion causes more pain than it heals.”
* Religion is boring. Many are seeking spiritual experience. But a lot of worship seems like talking and thinking about a God who’s conceptualized rather than communed with.

Oasis Ministries and other organizations offer programs and resources to help relieve the spiritual dryness of many churches and individuals—to restore the passion, integrity, and wholeness of Christ, the living water for the life of the world. Much of the current quest for prayer and meditation is a desire to make spiritual sense out of the grit of human experience.

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4. What is prayer?

“ Prayer means turning to Reality,” says Evelyn Underhill in The Spiritual Life. Prayer is offering the “what is” of one’s life to the “what can be” of God’s transforming love.

To pray is to yearn—for what is really important in life. And our longing is a response to God’s longing for us. In times when we cannot seem to pray, ancient wisdom tells us that merely desiring to pray is already prayer.
Prayer takes many forms in solitude or in community:

* Silence, music, praying with scripture
* Praying with the body by walking or physical exercises, by using gestures of kneeling or folding the hands
* Using the written prayers of others
* Keeping a spiritual journal; reflecting on dreams
* Intercession for others; praying for personal discernment
* Acts of social compassion

Anything that draws you to your true self and God and compassion for others can rightly be called prayer.

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5. What is contemplation? Is it the same as meditation?

Contemplative prayer moves away from talking, thinking, or analyzing to a wordless kind of prayer—simply loving and being loved. It is the image of Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus.

There are times of interior prayer when we are “lost in wonder, love and praise,” in the words of John Wesley’s hymn Love Divine. But there are also times of exterior prayer, when we “lose” ourselves in an act of self-forgetting love for another human being. Both can be contemplation, and both prayer. We meet the Word in silence in order to be open to greet the Word in the world of action.
“ Meditation,” a word used over and over in the Psalms, and “contemplation” are like siblings. Meditation is the younger brother, more like an active toddler; and contemplation is like an older sister who has learned to value silence and solitude. (See Praying with Scripture, below—with its stages of reading, meditation, praying, and contemplating.)

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6. What would a Contemplative/Active life look like?

As an artist contemplates a work of art, then splashes colors on the mat, sculpts the clay, or pens notes on a musical score, so contemplation and action are not separate, but rather two movements of the spiritual life.

As the mightiest waterfall has its source in a tiny mountain spring, so the greatest positive action originates in contemplation. The goal of the spiritual life is balancing silence and speech, action and contemplation. The two sisters become friends: Mary’s gift of interior listening at the feet of Jesus, and Martha’s gift of the exterior hospitality of food and lodging. We provide lodging for the Word in our hearts in order to welcome the Word into the world in the least of our brothers and sisters, in the poor and the poor in spirit.

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7. What is Centering Prayer?

As a potter centers the clay on the wheel, the aim of centering prayer is the centering of one’s soul, one’s true self—so that Christ can take shape uniquely in each believer’s life. When we live off center, our lives are literally “eccentric.”
The actual practice of centering prayer usually involves inwardly whispering a short word or phrase, often in rhythm to one’s breathing. Use a word or phrase from scripture, such as “Be still,” “Trust,” “Love” (Amor or Amore), “Peace” (Shalom or Salaam), Manna (bread in the wilderness), or Maranatha (“Our Lord come”—in Aramaic, the street version of Hebrew spoken in the time of Jesus.) Sometimes the use of a word in another language helps release the mind and heart from analysis.

The goal of centering prayer is to let ourselves become like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, or the Beloved Disciple leaning on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper—listening to the heartbeat of Love in order to love.

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8. What is Praying With Scripture?

Many people think of their devotions as reading the Bible—then saying their prayers. But this is an exercise in which the two come together: Praying the Scriptures.

In the fifth century, Benedict gave us a simple method: lectio Divina—the divine or prayerful reading of scriptures. Read a short text prayerfully—over and over, like a cow chewing her cud—until you are led to “delight in God.” The twelfth-century monk Guigo II divided Benedict’s Lectio into a fourfold experience, beginning with silence:

a. Reading: Like a cow grazing, use a lectionary or other method to select a brief portion of scripture; then read silently, read aloud—or both.
b. Meditating: Like a cow chewing fresh grass, re-read the passage, pondering the context—allowing meanings and associations to come to mind.
c. Praying: Like a cow regurgitating its sour cud, ruminate on the text. Let it get down in your gut and connect with your raw feelings.
d. Contemplating: Like the cow resting, digesting, allow the Word you need to get into your bloodstream.

The Psalms often refer to meditating on the Word or the Torah (Law). Contemplation is what the Psalmist means by “Delight yourself in the Lord, and [God] will give you the desires of your heart” (37:4). It is Luke’s image of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening.

Speaking of prayer, John Calvin wrote that Jesus “taught us to seek a retreat that would help us to descend into our heart… That God… will be near to us in the affections of our hearts” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.20.29).
When you pray with scripture, the Word becomes flesh embodied in service. Three forms of praying with scripture have been handed down:

a. Use your imagination to visualize a scene in a narrative text.
b. Converse with the characters. (Reflect inwardly, or by using a journal).
c. Repeat a short phrase that lures you, like a centering prayer. Keep your journal and Bible with you during personal prayer times.

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