Posted on Thursday, 6th April 2006 by Maritzia
Do you ever have these great thoughts while in the shower or doing laundry or washing the dishes or something, and think to yourself, “I really need to put this down in the journal”. But later, when you sit down in front of the computer to type up those profound thoughts (*snickers* profound…I crack myself up), you think, “nah…I'm too tired…no one wants to read it anyway.” Those were my exact thoughts as I brought up livejournal to make an update. But, I'm finally feeling well enough that my strength of will overcame my desire to be lazy, so y'all have to listen to me profound…*snickers again*… thoughts.
Now, before you start thinking, “Oh, she's going all Catholic on us, I'll just skip this entry”, let me disabuse you of that idea. Yes, while on the surface the discussion I was having with myself revolved around Catholic religious life, it actually applies to all types of spirituality. I'll tie it all in at the end.
Of course, if you really don't want to read it you don't have to…but you might find it interesting…then again, maybe I only interest myself. *laughs* It wouldn't be the first time I was the only one amused by the words in my head.
Anyway, on to the topic. I was thinking this morning about Catholic religious orders and how much many of them have lost since the advent of Vatican II. For those who don't know the history, during Vatican II in the early 60s (Vatican II was a series of conferences held at the Vatican for the bishops and cardinals to discuss the state of the church), religious orders were asked to take a look at their lives and their work in light of modern times and the spirit of their original founding. Many women's orders did so with a vengeance and completely revamped their lives. They changed what they wore, how they prayed, how they interacted, how they lived, and even the work that they did. And in the process, at least in my opinion, they lost something. Judging from the plethora of more traditional orders being founded in the last 20 years that are receiving so many vocations, I think others feel the same way.
The problem was that in their zeal to remake their lives, they lost sight of who they were and why they became nuns and sisters to start with. These days, in many of the renewed orders, sisters no longer live, eat, work and pray together. They have lost the little rituals that their lives revolved around. Now, don't get me wrong, I think a lot of the rituals and rules were archaic and some even unhealthy. But instead of discerning which were not useful and keeping the rest, they seem to have just thrown out the baby with the bath water. And now they pretty much live secular type lives with nothing to ground them in the lifestyle they have chosen. Is it any wonder that so many women have chosen not to enter those orders?
Now, right about now, I know you're asking what the heck this has to do with anything other than Catholicism. Well…I'll tell you. What those sisters lost is what many of us are lacking in our spiritual lives. It's the little daily rituals that keep us in touch with the divine. After all, isn't that pretty much what our spirituality and beliefs are all about? Having that relationship, that connection with whatever/whoever we consider to be divine? Once upon a time, the sisters prayed as they dressed. They literally had a very short prayer that they said when they put on each piece of the habit. They prayed before meals and after meals. They prayed when they began work. They prayed when they ended work. They prayed when they got in the car to go somewhere, and they prayed when they arrived.
All of these small prayers/rituals were a constant reminder of who they were and what they were striving for. That is something we can all use in our spiritual lives. That constant touch of the divine throughout our day. It's why we hang icons (be it a cross or a pentagram) on our walls, it's why we perform daily rituals (whether you go to mass or cast a circle), it's why we meditate and do spiritual reading. I think that Orthodox Jews have a really good grasp of this concept. Small rituals abound in their day and it helps keep them grounded in who they are.
These days, I'm not really part of any organized religion. So now, if I want to have this type of awareness in my life, I'm going to have to make my own daily rituals. I've never done that sort of thing before. I have to give it some serious thought, because our rituals must have meaning and not be done just for the sake of having ritual. That was a mistake many of the religious orders made during the renewal. Many of their rituals had lost meaning for them. They did them because they were supposed to, but many didn't even know the origins of the rituals or their original meaning. So they tossed them out, and that's not bad. But they didn't then replace them with rituals that had meaning for them. Another alternative would be to keep the rituals, but to bestow meaning to them appropriate for the sisters today.
And now this entry is incredibly to long. I probably lost most of you some time ago. God knows I tend to start getting glassy eyed when I'm reading long journal posts. But if you help on to the end, I'd be interested in hearing from any of you the type of small daily rituals you have to help you stay connected with your divine.
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