Accessed: 2015-Feb-15
Personal Spiritual Growth:
Finding it in Church today...
Finding it in Church today...
Church Parishes
have programs and committees
on everything under the sun
except
Spiritual Growth.
Without Contemplative growth
the spiritual life of churchgoers
remains purely intellectual and psychological
never radically converted at the heart level,
never transformed and awakened to
true inner Being.
Church programs
including bible study,
however useful and valuable,
are secondary to Personal Spiritual Growth,
only peripheral to
Inner Growth and Development.
Religion has to do with externals,
Spirituality with
BEING,
with the mysterious Inner Self.
Church hierarchy
thrives on the simple intellectual faith
of church members,
following prescribed external forms,
void of any real Transformation.
Churchgoers
chew on the rind
and never taste the savory fruit
of truly Being in Love,
never evolving into
a people of fire.
Attending Church liturgies
and receiving Sacraments
cannot substitute for
the personal responsibility
to Spiritual Growth
in the Contemplative Life.
Each of us individually
must climb the Mountain of Life
helped and supported by Church,
but also by Soul-Mates,
also climbing their unique paths
up the Mountain.
Church homilies,
by and large,
deal with external conduct,
moral virtues,
void of Contemplative support,
vital to a truly moral life.
Preaching morality
without personal Inner Growth
which strengthens and vivifies it,
rings hollow.
Spiritual Growth in the Contemplative Life
is experiential,
not dependent on sermons or catechism,
but secretly hidden
and concretely imbedded
in the daily events of life.
The Holy Spirit
manifests Herself instantly
in each of life's encounters,
gently prompting and prodding us
at each moment.
This Anointing
is with us always
ever deepening,
ever divinizing us.
It is this Mystical Life
that fires and animates us
as the Body of Christ,
True Church,
lit only
from deep within
at our Core
when
Being in Love.
Love, John
have programs and committees
on everything under the sun
except
Spiritual Growth.
Without Contemplative growth
the spiritual life of churchgoers
remains purely intellectual and psychological
never radically converted at the heart level,
never transformed and awakened to
true inner Being.
Church programs
including bible study,
however useful and valuable,
are secondary to Personal Spiritual Growth,
only peripheral to
Inner Growth and Development.
Religion has to do with externals,
Spirituality with
BEING,
with the mysterious Inner Self.
Church hierarchy
thrives on the simple intellectual faith
of church members,
following prescribed external forms,
void of any real Transformation.
Churchgoers
chew on the rind
and never taste the savory fruit
of truly Being in Love,
never evolving into
a people of fire.
Attending Church liturgies
and receiving Sacraments
cannot substitute for
the personal responsibility
to Spiritual Growth
in the Contemplative Life.
Each of us individually
must climb the Mountain of Life
helped and supported by Church,
but also by Soul-Mates,
also climbing their unique paths
up the Mountain.
Church homilies,
by and large,
deal with external conduct,
moral virtues,
void of Contemplative support,
vital to a truly moral life.
Preaching morality
without personal Inner Growth
which strengthens and vivifies it,
rings hollow.
Spiritual Growth in the Contemplative Life
is experiential,
not dependent on sermons or catechism,
but secretly hidden
and concretely imbedded
in the daily events of life.
The Holy Spirit
manifests Herself instantly
in each of life's encounters,
gently prompting and prodding us
at each moment.
This Anointing
is with us always
ever deepening,
ever divinizing us.
It is this Mystical Life
that fires and animates us
as the Body of Christ,
True Church,
lit only
from deep within
at our Core
when
Being in Love.
Love, John
