Secular Spirituality Session 8 Going forth to Love

Secular Spirituality Session 8 Going forth to Love And Serve

Spirituality Spir`it*u*al"i*ty, n. ; pl. [L. spiritualitas: cf. F. spiritualit['e]. ] 1. The quality or state of being spiritual; incorporeality; heavenly-mindedness or other-worldliness. • (Eccl. ) That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion, as distinct from temporalities. • An ecclesiastical body; the whole body of the clergy, as distinct from, or opposed to, the temporality. • Seeing all around us with different eyes and uniting the opposites by kenotic love

Spirituality • • • In the ordinary In the world What are your sacred spaces and places? Where do you encounter the holy Little clerics, we are not

• Models of familiar Spirituality stem from – Monastic settings – Clerical settings, liturgies – Church settings • Secular Spirituality/Sanctity requires us to look beyond the familiar

• Christianity is forward looking, always seeking to Christify all of creation, the Cosmos, and through our active participation in Christian Life to make the love of God visible. • We often prefer to be simply observers, to hold tight to the past, comfortable with what is know, afraid to risk becoming crucified love!

Shame-less plug Gospel to Life – Life to Gospel • Listen to the Gospel, hear the words of the Eternal Word • Contemplate Jesus “Is there any suffering like mine” the Mirror • Put the Gospel into Action

http: //www. franciscanaction. org/

The ultimate goals of Christianity • To unify the temporal and spiritual world, living today, in the NOW and being an expression of kenotic love. Crucified Love. • Seeking holiness in the every day ordinary world, the places made sacred by the Incarnation – God’s self-empting into fragile, messy humanity

• By loving every facet of the world, to take it seriously, embrace it and transform it into the fullness of Christ. • To actively participate with the Father’s co -re-creation of the world, by embracing the self-empting love of the Cross • To actively bear God in us and bring him, like Mary to the world

• Approach all life with: • • • Gratefulness and Joy Different seeing eyes Sense of family Intrinsic goodness Openness Self-empting and joyful suffering

• As we go back to our homes and fraternities, we can be spiritual guides and offer ourselves for our sisters and brothers. • "Let us begin, for up to now, we have done nothing. “ St. Francis of Assisi