FALL 2014 LCF
Class Session 6, Spiritual Practices
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Reflective practices are a way for us to become aware of our own state of being – allowing us to come closer to our own body, emotions, thoughts, and spirit. This gives us an opportunity to settle into a fresh harmony and balance.
A definition of Spirituality as given by Howard Rice[1]:
The pattern by which we shape our lives in response to experience of God as a
very real presence in and around us.
Everything we’ve talked about as a spiritual practice is to
feel that presence. For me, a lot of it is music. Using music to block out the world. Considering the dynamic
nature of sound and music allows for reflection. Music – like art – transcends
all languages and barriers and are two of the most beautiful communicative
skills we have. Because it is not about we know or we think, but feel. It’s
about our gut. It quiets us to reflect and affect our faith and values.
They help us to understand a God who is dynamic, relational,
and immanent. The definition of immanent is ‘permanently pervading and sustain
the universe.’ But at it’s root, immanent comes from the Latin immanere which means “remaining within”.
I see it as “coming from within.”
Another spiritual practice is prayer. One that is inherently
personal, solitary. But St. Mark’s also chooses to make it a social action –
using an open forum of Prayers of the People.
The thing to remember is that more than anything else, spiritual
practice has to do with how we’re showing up in the world and how present we
are.
Mary Oliver writes “The first, wildest, and wisest thing I
know is this: that the soul exists, and it is made entirely of attention.”
Spiritual practices or disciplines are about growing the soul, about paying
attention in such a way that the “soul” expands and pays attention. Spiritual
practices are about noting the ways our inner lives, the world, and something
larger than ourselves are woven together.
I [Claire] have shared with you that my love for music and
art are my meditative practices. But when I feel it most is when I’m dancing in
a club, surrounded by my friends, hearing the lyrics to “Don’t Stop Believing,”
and there is that moment where I am wholly in the moment. It is beautiful. It
is profound. I am with those people, and in that place, and I’m connected to
God. And at the moment, I feel in my bones and the thought resonates: This is
my church.
A little historic liturgy from St. Mark's lore:
Category B-11 Church
The Penninam Principle
The Reverend Dr. Charles F. Penniman Jr.
Christian Education
Consultant to St. Mark’s Church, 1956-1960
Church … is the symbolic form in which I find my life and live
it. … Church is always exclusive in a Faith sense, but not in a social, moral,
or any other sense. If I am well-born here, I can never be narrow or isolated;
I will be free for “friendly” mobility within history.[2]
The Adams Addendum
The Reverend James Rowe Adams
Rector, St. Mark’s
Church, 1966-1996
The symbolic
understanding of church is in a completely different realm from the use of the
word to refer to a building or even to the people of the congregation. It helps
to remember that church as people has no more power to save than the church
building. The building and the people simply provide the occasion for our
discovery of the church as the New Jerusalem come down from heaven, the symbol
of God’s presence with us. It is the presence of God that makes us feel so
well-centered that we are free to move among people who would otherwise appear
threatening because of their differences from us.
Each of us shapes the spiritual community by the way we
together shape its life in response to God’s presence. What is the effect our
daily spiritual practices have on us, what we are able to give to the world,
and to our community? How are spirituality and attitude shapes our worship, the
collaborative leadership of the body, and our social action and interaction?
“Have you ever found
God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to
show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.”
~ Alice Walker, The Color Purple
[1]
Howard Rice, author of Reformed
Spirituality: An Introduction for Believers, was a professor of Ministry
and Chaplain Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary in California.
[2]
Full Category Description: Church
(a categoric, not a symbolic statement) is the symbolic form in which I find my
life and live it. For a symbolic expression of Church, see for contrast, a
classic statement in the Epistle on the occasion of the Consecration of a
Church or Chapel (Revelations 21:2-5). Church is always exclusive in a Faith
sense, but not in a social, moral, or any other sense. If I am well-born here,
I can never be narrow or isolated; I will be free for “friendly” mobility
within history
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