Journey to the Centre of the Soul: A handbook for explorers by Andrew Mayes helps us to reflect on the challenges of relating our spirituality to the world in which we lives. Mayes notes the challenges of a society often in turmoil and placing many demands on our time. He comments: “we live in a fragmenting world. Even within ourselves, we find ourselves pulled apart, caught up in a multiplicity of tasks, with so little time… caught between the commitment to help build Christian community and the call to solitude; pulled between the ‘desert’ and the ‘city’; falling between ideals of holiness and the reality of our fragility.”
Mayes recognises our desire to make a difference and all that God makes possible.
“The idea of spiritual formation emphasises that in prayer God wants to heal our dividedness, restore our unity, renew our wholeness in Christ. We need to be on the lookout both for signs of fragmentation, inner conflict and tension, and for signs of integration, evidences of things coming together, like the interweaving of strands in a Celtic design.”
“Spiritual formation invites us to be attentive to the impact of our prayer on our lifestyle and our lifestyle’s impact on prayer. It encourages us to explore the links between the way we pray and the way we live—to make connections between our experience in prayer and what happens to us in the world.”
All this is not easy, but it can make a valuable difference.
“Our potential and vocation is to be ignited by the Spirit, engulfed with his fire, radiant and ablaze with the Spirit himself, the divine flame. We need to allow ourselves to be scorched, singed, caressed by such a flame. In what ways have you experienced the fire of the divine Spirit in your life? Has this been a comforting or disturbing experience?”
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