February 2007 Christian Spirituality By George A Lane SJ

. Spirituality for our time Continue from ...... To capsulize the implications of this article we might distinguish four aspects of the spiritual life which may well be components for an apostolic Christian life in our time. The first aspect is a Christian outlook; this is a reflex, intellectual faith-vision of the world. This is the way a person sees things, the way they interpret their experience. In moments of reflection or writing or serious conversation a person may articulate their vision of the world. What we have just seen above is an epitome of Teilhard's vision of the world. For a Christian this vision will be a faith-vision. The way a person understands God, people, and the world will have a profound influence on their whole spirituality. The second aspect of any spirituality must be a finding or seeking God in formal prayer. This is raising the heart and mind to God in meditation, comtemplation, and liturgical prayer. It is an interior exercise of prayer which we saw for Ignatius was not an end, but a means in the spiritual life. It can be used to foster and enrich one's faith-vision; it may be a means for finding God's will, a time for discernment; and it is ordered to the service of God and action for the kingdom of Christ. We meet this sort of prayer in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. We also find this type of prayerful expression throughout the writing of Teilhard. "But for these moments of more efficient or more explicit contact, the tide for the divine omnipresence and our perception of it would weaken until all that was best in our human endeavour, without being entirely lost to the world, would be emptied of God." A third aspect of the spiritual life is finding God in activity. This is prayer as a style of life in God's service. To find God's will is to find God, and to do God's will is to be united with God. Teilhard writes, "let us ponder over this basic truth till we are steeped in it. God at his most vitally active and most incarnate is not remote from us, wholly apart from the spere of the tangible. On the contrary, at every moment he awaits us in the activity, in the work to be done which every moment brings." Total active dedication to God's will in a spirit of loving obedience will presuppose and actually involve a thorough-going asceticism, a self-denial geared to service, and constant mortification. The fourth and last aspect of a spirituality is finding God in a experiential awareness of the presence of God. This is a sense or preception of God's operative presence in the world or in oneself. It is a gift, a special grace; it is the perfection of faith, and at its highest levels it is mysticism. Pierre Teilhard once wrote, "Lord Jesus, when it was given to me to see where the dazzling trial of particular beauties and partial harmonies was leading, I recognized that it was all coming to a centre on a single point, a single person, yourself. Every presence makes me feel that you are near me, every touch is the touch of your hand, every necessity transmits to me a pulsation of your will." With Teilhard we might pray, "Lord grant that I may see, that I may see you, that I may see and experience you present and animating all things ... Jesus, help me to perfect the perception and expression of my vision ... Help me to the right action, the right word, help me to give the example that will reveal you best."

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2007. All rights reserved.