Faith & Spirituality
This page of faith and spirituality provides many practical resources to explore our spirituality and to deepen our Catholic/Christian faith. We hope that these resources will be of benefit to you individually and collectively as we live out our faith in in community as the People of God who seek to live the Reign of God in our daily lives
What is Spirituality and What Makes for Different Spiritualities?
Article by Ronald Rohlheiser, OMI January 28, 2019
The word spirituality is relatively new within the English-speaking world, at least in terms of how it is being used today. Prior to the 1960s you would have found very few books in English with the word “spirituality” in their title, though that wasn’t true for the French-speaking world. A half-century ago spiritual writers within Roman Catholicism wrote about spirituality but mostly under titles such as “The Spiritual Life” and “Ascetical Theology”, or under the guise of devotional treatises. Protestants and Evangelicals, for the most part, identified spirituality with Roman Catholic devotions and steered clear of the word.
What is spirituality, as generally understood within church circles today? Definitions abound within spiritual writings of every sort, each of which defines spirituality with a particular end-goal in mind. Many of these definitions are helpful within academic discussions but are less so outside those circles. So, let me risk simplifying things with a definition that’s wide, interreligious, ecumenical, and hopefully simple enough to be helpful.
Spirituality is the attempt by an individual or a group to meet and undergo the presence of God, other persons, and the cosmic world so as to come into a community of life and celebration with them. The generic and specific disciplines and habits that develop from this become the basis for various spiritualities.
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Stripped to its root, spirituality can be spoken of as a “discipline” to which someone submits. For example, in Christianity we call ourselves “disciples” of Jesus Christ. The word “discipleship” takes it root in the word “discipline”. A disciple is someone who puts herself under a discipline. Hinduism and Buddhism call this a “yoga”. To be a practicing Hindu or Buddhist you need be practicing a certain spiritual “discipline”, which they term a yoga. And that’s what constitutes any religious practice.
All religious practice is a question of putting oneself under a certain “discipline” (which makes you a “disciple”). But we can distinguish among various religious “disciplines”. Aristotle gave us a distinction which can be helpful here. He distinguished between a “genus” and a “species”; e.g., bird is a genus, robin is a species. Thus looking at various spiritualities we can distinguish between “generic” disciplines and “specific” disciplines: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, and various Native Religions are “generic” spiritualities. But within each of these you will then find a wide range of “specific” spiritualities. For example within the wide category of Christianity you will find Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Protestants, Evangelicals, Mormons, and Congregationalists. Each of these is a species.
Then we can distinguish still further: Within each of those you will find a wide range of “sub-species”, that is, particular Christian “disciplines”. For instance, within Roman Catholicism, we can speak of persons who have Charismatic spirituality or a Jesuit, Franciscan, Carmelite, or Salesian spirituality, to offer just a few examples. Notice the pattern here – from genus to species to sub-species. As a spirituality, Christianity is a genus, Roman Catholicism is a species, and being a Jesuit or a Franciscan (or, in my case, being an Oblate of Mary Immaculate) is a sub-species.
I apologize if this seems a bit irreverent, that is, to speak so clinically of genus, species, and sub-species in reference to cherished faith traditions wherein martyrs blood has been shed. But the hope is that this can help us understand more clearly a complex issue and its roots.
No one serves one’s God fully, just as no one lives out one’s God-given dignity fully. We need guidance. We need trusted, God-blessed patterns of behavior and disciplines that ultimately come from divine revelation itself. We call these religions. Then, inside of these religions, we can be further helped by models of behavior lived out by certain saints and wisdom figures. Thus, inside of Christianity, we have the time-tested example and wisdom of 2000 years of faithful women and men who have carved out various “disciplines” which can be helpful for us to better live out our own discipleship. Jesuit, Franciscan, Carmelite, Salesian, Mazenodian, Charismatic, Opus Dei, Focolare, Catholic Worker, Sant’Egidio, Cursillo, Acts-Missions, and Catholic Christian Outreach, among others, are spiritualities, and just as the exercise and diet regiments of health experts can help us keep our bodies more healthy, so too can the discipleship practices of particular saints, spiritual giants, and wisdom figures help make our following of Jesus more faithful and generative.
Which one of these spiritualities is best for you? That depends upon your individual temperament, your particular vocation and call, and your circumstance within life. One size doesn’t fit all. Just as each snowflake is different from every other snowflake, so too with us. God gives us different gifts and different callings and life puts us in different situations.
They say the book you need to read finds you and finds you at the exact time that you need to read it. That’s true too for spiritualities. The one you need will find you, and will find you at the exact time when you need it.
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by Sarah Mac Donald
New book outlines how Irish women religious were connected to the highest levels of power and authority in the regions within which they operated in the two centuries after the Reformation.
Global Sisters Report May 2, 2023
Irish Prayers
for CARE OF CREATION guide and prayer resource book
For Our Loved Ones Far Away, St Colmcille
St Colmcille,
Who suffered the pain and grief of exile,
watch over the children of Ireland,
scattered throughout the world.
Obtain for them solace and courage,
and keep them true to God
in every trial and temptation!
Amen. (Prayers of an Irish Mother)
Peace; Northern Ireland School Children, Andrew McNeill
Peace in the city,
Peace in the House
Peace in my heart
And peace everywhere.
Please guide the leaders in our land to make this country a better and safer place. Make all the wars stop so that people can live in peace. Show us how to share what we have so that no one in the world need be hungry.
Dear Lord God, Even though we are different
Let us be grateful for the way you have made us and for the world we live in.
Let us talk people out of bombing and fighting. Let us always respect others and try to think how they feel. Amen.
Leadership; St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Notice everything
Correct a little
Cherish the brethren.
In thought – Faith
In word – Truth
In Deed – Courage
In life – Service
Service; Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Teach us, good Lord,
To serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
Peace Prayer; Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
For Tolerance; G.A. Cleveland Shrigley
Father of all people, free us from every prejudice born of hate and fear and kept alive by ignorance and pride. Open our hearts and minds to new friendships and new contributions of the spirit from races and cultures, religion and classes other than our own.
Enrich us by the great thoughts and experiences of all people and countries. With your children on earth make us sharers of your abundant life and workers together in your kingdom of love and peace.
Service; Martin Luther King
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb to agree to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theorem of thermo-dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
A Volunteers Prayer; William Barclay
O God, our Father, deliver us this day from all that would keep us from serving you and from serving our fellow human beings as we ought.
Deliver us from all coldness of heart; and grant that neither our hand nor our heart may ever remain shut to the appeal of someone’s need.
Deliver us from all weakness of will; from the indecision which cannot make up its mind; from the irresolution that cannot abide by a decision once it is made; from the ability to say no to the tempting voices which come to us from inside and from outside.
Deliver us from all failure in endeavor; from being too easily discouraged; from giving up and giving in too soon; from allowing any task to defeat us, because it is too difficult.
Grant unto us today the love which is generous in help; the determination which is steadfast in decision; the perseverance which is enduring unto the end; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A Suffolk Prayer for those who travel; Ronald Blythe
We remember before God all those who make our journey here happy and fulfilled, our families and our friends. We name in our hearts those who live a long way from us and we do not often see.
We remember before God all those who are sick in body or in mind, people in hospital, people undergoing difficult treatments.
And we remember before God all those who for a while, have lost those they love and are sad.
We remember all prisoners in their isolation and suffering the world over, especially prisoners of conscience. We thank God for all his mercies to us, for making our lives in this beautiful place, for giving us good food, good homes and good friends. We thank him for the countryside in the summer and for our gardens and fields. We thank him for the gifts of the spirit, books and music.
Sarum Primer (1558)
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth and in my speaking;
God be in my heart and in my thinking
God be at my end, and at my departing
Irish Blessing
May the roads rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again may God hold you in the hollow of his hands.
May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.
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May there always be work for your hands to do,
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane,
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you,
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
May you live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.
Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.
Tis better to buy a small bouquet
And give to your friend this very day,
Than a bushel of roses white and red
To lay on his coffin after he's dead.
May the blessings of each day
Be the blessings you need most.
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Life is like a cup of tea,
it's all in how you make it!
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We cannot share this sorrow
If we haven't grieved a while.
Nor can we feel another's joy
Until we've learned to smile.
For the test of the heart is trouble
And it always comes with years.
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through the tears.
Grant me a sense of humor, Lord,
The saving grace to see a joke,
To win some happiness from life,
And pass it on to other folk.
May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more.
And nothing but happiness
Come through your door.
May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks.
May your heart be as light as a song.
May each day bring you bright happy hours,
That stay with you all year long.
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For each petal on the shamrock
This brings a wish your way
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day.
__________________________
May the blessings of light be upon you,
Light without and light within.
And in all your comings and goings,
May you ever have a kindly greeting
From them you meet along the road.
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May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
Slow to make enemies,
And quick to make friends.
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
_________________________________
Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the Son of peace to you.
Blessing of light
May the blessing of light be on you,
Light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart
Till it glows like a great fire,
And strangers may warm themselves as well as friends.
And may the light shine out of the eyes of you
Like a candle set in the window of a house,
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
May you ever have a kindly greeting for people
As you’re going along the roads.
And now may the Lord bless you,
And bless you kindly.
Amen.
May God give us the light and glory of heaven. Amen.
pRAYER FOR THOSE AWAY FROM HOME
Loving God, we pray for those whom we love, but who are absent from us. Keep them safe from all harm, evil and danger. Bless them with peace, laughter, wisdom, love and joy. Grant that we may be reunited in the fullness of love; in Christ’s name we pray.
From Prayers of our Hearts by Vienna Cobb Anderson
A Prayer for our Irish Emigrants
Lord, some may know the bleakness of life, its capacity to disappoint, the waning of energy or health.
Yet they have a place in the soul which time cannot touch, a wisdom and beauty from lives deeply inhabited. May all of them know the warmth of their soul, the natural shelter around their lives.
In dignity and freedom, may they return home to themselves. Amen. (Anon)