Last week, one of the books I enjoyed reading was Sr. Joan Chittister's "The Illuminated Life: Monastic Wisdom for Seekers." Sr. Joan is a Benedictine nun and though considered outspoken and liberal in Catholic circles, if there were more Sr. Joans and fewer authoritarian males spouting doctrine and dogma in Catholicism, I would probably still be officially within the structure. I love the Mass and many, many things about Catholicism, but it's those doggoned dogmatic males that raise my hackles. Using the wisdom from early Christianity's Desert Fathers, Sr. Joan's book follows food for thought alphabetically--A (Abandonment) through Z (Zeal) to help experience peace and love in the midst of life's pressures and problems.
This passage struck me, though almost everything she wrote really struck home.
Souls die from lack of reflection. Responsibilities dog us and tell us were too involved with the "real" world to be concerned about the spiritual questions. But it is always spiritual questions that make the difference in the way we go about our public responsibilities. Marriage, business, children, professions have all been defined in ways that keep contemplation, but no one needs contemplation more than the harried mother, the irritable father, the ambitious executive, the striving professional, the poor woman, the sick man. Then, in those situations, we need reflection, understanding, meaning, peace of soul more than ever.
Religion is about rituals and morals and systems, all of them good but all of them incomplete. Spirituality is about coming to consciousness of the sacred in the secular. It is in that consciousness that perspective comes, that peace comes. It is in that consciousness that a person comes to wholeness.
Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA, and founder and executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality. I was told that the former Pope asked for her order to silence her, but her superior refused to do so. Sr. Joan is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women's issues, and contemporary spirituality in the Church and in society. She presently serves as the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations, facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders, especially in the Middle East.
