Editorial: Nurturing spirituality
Anna Rankin

From the[acting] director: New Shoes
Lynda Gould

Wholeness, Holiness & Wholegrain Spirituality
David Campton

Comment: Racehorses and Turtles
Stephen Cave

A Spirituality of Communion: The Benedictine Monks, Rostrevor
Dom Mark-Ephrem M Nolan, OSB

Interview with John Dickinson & Paul Symonds: The Shape of Spirituality
Derek Poole

Prayer 24-7
Gillian Best

In quest of living theology: A conversation piece on theological education and Christian formation
Ian Dickson

A Spirituality of Welcome
Katherine Poulton

Bible Study: Christian Spirituality
Bishop Donal McKeown

Review: How (Not) to Speak of God
Gladys Ganiel

Review: Spirituality and Transformation
Glenn Jordan

Difficult Conversations
Christian Spirituality
Lynda Gould

New Resource
The Theological Grounds for Advocating Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Socio-political Realm

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CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

After a couple of decades in the cultural wilderness, spirituality has again come to claim a place in accepted popular vocabulary. Of course, “spirituality” can take all sorts of forms and, indeed, a large market has developed to supply the wide range of models on offer.

WE LIVE in a supermarket culture and are inevitably affected by it. But the Scriptures constantly challenge us to look afresh at our spirituality and ensure that it is not excessively conditioned by our cultural, personal or ecclesiastical traditions.

1 “We have received, not the Spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God.”
1 Corinthians 2:12

The Gospel is clear that we are born of water and the Spirit (Jn. 3:5). And, though there will be disagreements on the roles of the water in this rebirth, the role of the Spirit is clear. Our spirit-uality is about the life of the Spirit in us. It is not about my efforts or achievements, or even about my faithfulness to the tradition that I have received. It is about the indwelling Spirit who helps us in our weakness and who intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words (Rom. 8:26).

Thus, Christian spirituality, unlike the marketed versions, is not about self-fulfilment but about self-transcendence through the power of God’s grace. There is thus no room for any sense of superiority or self-righteousness. It is by God’s grace that any of us is saved, whether we are called to work in the vineyard through the heat of the day or only at the eleventh hour (Mt. 20:1-16).

• What has the Spirit of God been telling me in recent weeks and months, through my prayer, through the Scriptures and through the events of my life?
• Where have I experienced the presence of the Spirit in my heart and life?
• Where do I recognise the tensions between my own fallen nature and the call of God’s Spirit?

2 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
1 Corinthians 3:6

The New Testament is full of images of growth and striving. There is the image of the sower (Mt. 13:1-9), of the believers as God’s field (1 Cor. 3:9), of Paul running the race (1 Cor. 9:24-27) suggesting that, typically, our conversion to the Lord is not completed in a one-off event. After all, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus grew in wisdom and years, (Lk. 2:52) and that he learned to obey through suffering (Heb. 5:8). Furthermore, Peter, Andrew, James and John – despite their initial abandonment of everything to follow Jesus (Mt. 4:18-22) – still had much learning to do about Jesus. Peter stumbled on, growing in his knowledge of the Lord and his ways. Even despite Pentecost and the vision of Acts 10, he was still called to conversion by Paul in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14). The author of the letter to the Hebrews is clear that the Exodus image remains a key paradigm for the growth in Christian life. It was precisely through the challenge of new events, new blockages in themselves, that the early believers came to understand more and more of who Jesus was and what his message implied. It has been said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. God’s grace is at work, both when we find ourselves afflicted and when we feel comfortable. It is a healthy Christian spirituality that enables a person to develop and mature in Christ, whatever the circumstances. God’s remaking of us is always a work in progress, as we grow in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10). The God of the Incarnation walks with the believer. We walk in faith, sure that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6).

• Where have I noticed growth in my relationship with the Lord over a period of time?
• What most helps me to engage with the Spirit of God in my life? What helped in the past but is no longer effective?
• What forms of prayer/meditation/worship/silence would I like to try?

3 “Indeed the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
1 Corinthians 12:14

We live in a very individualistic society. That suits a lot of people, who enjoy that privacy – though for many, loneliness is the main effect. But the Scriptures keep asking us about our relationships with one another, our common membership of the Body of Christ that has come through the Spirit who was given to us all to drink (1 Cor. 12:13).

A Christian spirituality is clearly based on one’s relationship with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. But Paul’s correspondence to the Corinthians make it clear that relationships with one another and attitudes to one another are not an optional extra in the Christian life, but integral to it. We are constantly invited to develop, not just our vertical relationship with God, but our horizontal relationships with people, especially the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Mt. 25:31-45). And that is where our lives are marked with the Cross.

At the Last Supper, Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples, that “…they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me” (Jn. 17: 23). The quality of our relationships is one of the key ways in which Jesus becomes credible.

Our relationship with the Father, through Jesus, in the Spirit, is not just a cosy corner for a holy huddle, but a painful call to walk our Galilee and Judea roads with the compassion that we find in the gospels. Jesus’ relationship with the Father in prayer helped him, not to escape from the world and its problems, but to embrace the world in its pain.

• Where has my relationship with the Lord challenged me in my relations with others?
• What do I find most unsettling about the “Body of Christ”?
• Am I called to conversion in this regard?

THE MOST REVEREND DONAL MCKEOWN is Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Down and Connor.

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