Christian Spirituality

I thought this portion of the post would be interesting as a stand alone comment.

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We might consider the four “nonnegotiable essentials” of Christian spirituality laid out by Ronald Rolheiser in The Holy Longing:

1. Private prayer and private morality: “In many of the spiritual classics of Christian literature, the writers … suggest that we will make progress in the spiritual life only if we, daily, do an extended period of private prayer, and only if we practice a scrupulous vigilance in regards to all the moral areas within our private lives. In essence, that is the first nonnegotiable within the spiritual life.”

2. Social justice: “… according to the Jewish prophets, where we stand with God depends not just upon prayer and sincerity of heart but also on where we stand with the poor. … All Christian churches have always taught this, in one way or the other, and they have also always, in their best expressions, lived it out.”

3. Mellowness of heart and spirit: “Both as liberals and conservatives we too easily write off this third prong of the spiritual life, rationalizing that our causes are so urgent, we are so wounded, and our world is so bad, that, in our situation, anger and bitterness are justified. But we are wrong…”

4. Community as a constitutive element of true worship: “… anyone who claims to love God who is invisible but refuses to deal with a visible neighbor is a liar, for one can only really love a God who is love if one is concretely involved with a real community (ultimately an ‘ecclesial community’) on earth.”