The Holy Longing
I have picked up a book entitiled "The Holy Longing" by Ronald Rolheiser and have been deeply intrigued by his opening chapter. It is a book dedicated to the search for spirituality.
His opening chapter is basically a look at the definition of spirituality. He takes the view that humans, by their very nature are restless and at a fundamental dis-ease in this world. There is a fire that burns in each one - a fire that drives us; an unquenchable desire. This desire, he states can show itself as an aching pain or a delicious hope. Spirituality is ultimately what we do with that desire.Spirituality is not something on the fringes, an option for those with a particular bent. None of us has a choice. Everyone has to have a spirituality and everyone does have one, either a life giving one or a destructive one. No one has the luxury of choosing here because all of us are precisely fired into life with a certain madness that comes from the gods and we have to do something with that. What we do with that madness is our spirituality. Hence, spirituality is not about serenely picking or choosing certain spiritual activities like going to church, praying or meditating, reading spiritual books, or setting off on some explicit spiritual quest. It is far more basic than that. Long before we do anything explicitly religious at all, we have to do something about the fire that burns within us. What we do with that fire, how we channel it, is our spirituality. It is more about whether we can sleep at night than whether or not we go to church. It is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely, about being in harmony with Mother Earth or being alienated from her. Irrespective of whether or not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any explicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter. What shapes our actions is our spirituality. (p6-7)
This is but a short taste of his offerings but it has been a very helpful piece for my own reflection. In my quest for addressing the spiritual in life, I have often been left feeling guilty for not doing the right things in the right way at the right time - or feeling the right way when I was doing them. Rolheiser offers a helpful view for me. I wonder what it would look like if, as we engage others in conversation around spirituality, we were to begin by discussing desires and passions and the fire that burns in us as opposed to our religious activity.
Either way, I look forward to the remainder of this read and I welcome your comments or reactions.
8 comments:
Andrew, Ron Rolheiser is full of CRAP! Who understands this holy longing - is there a longing thats not holy? is there a Holy without longing?
hey Andrew, I would say that everything that we do is spiritual, but I am not sure what he means by fire burning inside of us, are only things that we are 'burning' for are good spiritual things, is that what the author is saying? I would say that even those things that I am not excited about like fasting is spiritual, or even something lame like driving can be a good spiritual experience but I may not look forward to either...so how does the burning tie in with that? Does that make sense?
I read your post and the comments and am not totally making the connection. I am wondering if the word "spiritual" messes us up. Too many ways of understanding what that means. Andrew, is the author pointing us to meaning? Making sense of what we deem meaningful in our world? I would go out on a limb to say that most "meaningful" things are slippery, hard to grasp, and usually can be described "spiritually." How do you describe a relationship that is fulfilling, except to say that in the "presence" of this person, there is a "spirit," an "atmosphere" or "ethos," that not only makes me feel good, but I know that it IS good. Of course it is never this simple, but I resonate with this quest to recognize how my spirituality is evidence of how I search for meaning, or journey to make things make sense and to live fulfilled.
Giselle, it's nice to see that you stopped by. Always appreciate your sense of humour.
Paul and Jeff, good questions all, perhaps the comment from Rolheiser, in this context, lacks the larger picture of what he is saying. He attempts to identify, first off, what "spirit" is. What is our spirit? He claims it is the fire that drives us and the force that also keeps us integrated and healthy. As such, our spirit, or The Spirit, acts as the force that both 1) gives us energy and 2) acts as glue to keep us together. What gets us out of bed in the morning? What is our driving force? Answer that question and you will be close to Rolheiser's definition of what Spirit is (at least as I read him).
Therefore, those activities in which we engage that express our energy, or energize us further and keep us integrated/healthy humans, are spiritual activities. Rolheiser, as I understand him would definitely say that everything we do is integrated with our spirit - is spiritual. Some of it, however, is not a healthy spirituality. But, I believe he is attempting to identify spirituality in a deeper sense than simply the things that we do. He is attempting to define and bring to consciousness that part of ourselves that is often so subtle that we barely recognize her voice.
Again, I am doing injustice to this book and the author. I certainly find, however that his definition of spirit brings it far closer to my heart. I can relate to this concept far more than I can the concept that Spirit is some ethereal vapour that lives in the nebulous heavens.
Local Yokai: many people do. if you were to read theis book with a open mind and heart you would understand that everyone longs for somthing more, and when you get more you want more. that void is neverfilled with material things, but only with the love of god, that what he means by that fire that burns within and why we cry when we enter the world, because at the point we enter the world we are emidiatly seperated from god and are now in the world of sin, and we long to be backwith God. and remember this saying"when a rock is thrown into a croud, the man who makes the most noise, is the man who was hit by that rock."think about it.
I just started reading Im on the second chapter. Its helping me a lot in how to focus my energies. Just one of the many interesting parts is about the capturing and then knowing how to keep the energy once captured.
I have just finished Gerald May's "Addiction and Grace" which pretty much blew the top of my mind off about spirituality. A friend mentioned Holy Longing as a book I might like also. Thus I end up on this blog. Have a great day!
Rolheiser makes sense of the constant unsettled state in which we live our lives. His theory of a fire that drives us provides me with the explanation I need for the many events of my life.Many of us are a combination of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa and the constant struggle is to manage this fire to steer our lives in a positive direction. I believe that it is this fire within us that defines our personalities and make us unique as human beings.
Post a Comment