Your current awareness and beliefs about sprirtuality developed from both the external teaching, environment and family tradition you grew up with AND from your thoughts and personal discernment as you learned about yourself and matured. If you were raised in a faith based community, you were taught traditions, practices and rules for living but in many cases little was discussed about spirituality. If spirituality was discussed you have been blessed. Some readers have had wonderful child hood experiences related to their spiritual development. Others not so wonderful or not at all. But at some point as most adults ask the question; What do I believe? What do I believe about my origin? What do I believe about what happens at my death? Do I have faith in a creator? We must each find our own path but help is available and sometimes needed.
I believe our spirituality gains clarity the more we express and live in Love. Love for our Creator and love for humanity. When that is a priority, your spirituality will flourish. Learning to love one another and our selves is critical to this success. Jesus taught us. "The first and greatest commandment is this: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole strength. And the second is like unto this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He went on to modify the second, saying: "I give you a new commandment: You shall love one another as I have loved you." Making it clear that "greater love than this no man hath than he lay down his life for his friend," he went on to do just that: he laid down his life for all of us, his friends.
I was raised in a Christian Trinitarian tradition. I attended the First Presbytarian Church of Pitman, New Jersey as a child and teenager. In College I met and married a wonderful Maronite women. I discovered Eastern Christianity, specifically the Maronite Catholic Rite, which combined my Christian trinitarian upbringing with eastern spirituality in a Monastic tradition. St Sharbel a Maronite Monk sets the tone and reverence of the Divine Liturgy with a wonderful prayer.
Click here for the prayer of St Sharbel
In 1978, after a year of study with the local Maronite Priest, I converted and became a Maronite Catholic. Since then I have served as a Sunday School teacher, Parish Council President, Hafli organizer and reader. On October 24, 2010 I was ordained to the minor order of Lector, Cantor, Subdeacon. I continue to serve the altar in that role. You can visit St Joseph's Maronite Church website click here.
May God be with you in your search for the source of life and truth. Ultimately I believe you will find God within you and within others who believe by gathering together in worship. Some say all music is a form of worship.... depending on the topic of the song will determine what is being worshipped.
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Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here it is,' or `There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21) This last line has also been interpreted as the "kingdom of God is within your midst". |
You must discern for yourself which meaning rings true. I would encourage you to find a Church and spiritual director to assist you with this discernment and journey. For me the silence of prayer and regular attendance at the Maronite Divine Liturgy is the best way to discern this. Silent prayer is best practiced as Centering Prayer, as taught by Fr Thomas Keating and discussed in the Cloud of Unknowing. The process of connecting to our creator continues throughout our life. We either let it happen by chance with impulse driven decisions or we choose to feed and nurture our creative source through focused action in our daily lives.
Thank you Fr Keating and others in the Centering Prayer and contemplative network, my connection to you sustains my hope in the Lord, which is supported by unending Love provided to me at St Joseph Maronite Church in Waterville, Maine.
Peace Be with you.
Subdeacon Stephen
A Prayer for America: http://t.co/olLiaHBsjf via @youtube.
Here is another of my favorite. #PBTGA.
— Steve Crate (@scrate) May 14, 2013
Below are some other links that may help you in your spritual search: