I trust that each of you found a way to celebrate a day of Gratitude and Thanksgiving yesterday. I pray that you (and I) find a way to bring that gratitude forward into each and every day. And I know for all of us that the Love and Light of Spirit infuses every moment with radiant health and Wholeness, with understanding and Compassion, and with the Peace that passes all understanding.
With our nation’s official day of Thanksgiving behind us for this year, we move toward the season of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany…the Season of Light. Many of us have let go of the spiritual rituals and traditions of this potentially-amazing season. I, for one, was not raised with any connection between Christmas and Spirit. It was all about shopping, shopping, shopping. It was decorating a tree and surrounding it with the biggest mound of gifts that we could manage. And it was a visit from Santa Claus, stockings filled with little treasures, and one big gift that hadn’t been there the night before. There was no attempt to pull these traditions together into anything meaningful. And living in a non-religious household, no one seemed to question it.
I must admit, I have kept (and continue to hold to) a few of these traditions. They bring me joy and remind me to let my inner child play a little bit. But as I mature spiritually, there is a call from deep within to bring meaning to such practices. Each one has a history and a reason for being introduced into our cultural celebration of Christmas. And I believe that each one has a gift to offer. By re-defining and re-adopting some of the ritual and ceremony that has grown up around this Season of Light, we are called to move into deeper relationship with ourselves, with Nature, with one another, and with our personal sense of God. We are, in fact, called to evolve the nature of our culture and what it means to be human. And so, I will be writing each day to offer contemplations, and maybe Practices, that may serve to enrich and enliven this Holy-Day season.
I begin this journey by addressing the Season of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany as a series of celebrations in the liturgical calendar. First of all, what does that mean? Britannica Online defines it this way: “Christian calendar. Church year, also called liturgical year, annual cycle of seasons and days observed in the Christian churches in commemoration of the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and of his virtues as exhibited in the lives of the saints.” Right away our hackles can go up when we read Christian calendar. Thanks to the many inconsistencies and hypocrisies demonstrated by the Christian Church (as well as other religious groups), many of us have disidentified from religion altogether. We prefer to see ourselves as spiritual, but not religious. I fear we may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and our lives are impoverished by this unconscious decision.
In her book, The Season Nativity, author Sybil MacBeth shares her reasons for loving this time of year: “The Nativity season gives me permission to be – do I dare say the r-word? – Religious. Religious has gotten a bad reputation in the past hundred years. It has come to mean pious, self-righteous, holding mindless belief, and practicing empty ritual. Although I am tempted at times to describe myself as spiritual, but not religious – because spiritual feels freer, less judgmental, more in touch with the Divine, and more loving – I have a deep religious sensibility. I want to be both spiritual and religious.”
It seems to me that the best place to begin this journey together, through the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, is to establish some definitions for words like spirituality and religion, and to see how they differ from theology and dogma. This will provide some common ground and a solid foundation for our daily contemplation and Practice.
Let’s start with spirituality. In New Thought teachings, and now in the newer path taking shape as Evolutionary Spirituality, we believe that there is only One Thing going on here, and that One Thing is God, or Infinite Intelligence, emanating…taking form…as all that is. If that is so, then everything is of a spiritual nature. We are all spiritual whether we know it or not. That said, our spirituality is simply our awareness, our felt sense, that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. When we refer to ourselves as spiritual, but not religious, what we are saying is that we don’t follow a particular theology or dogma.
Now, let’s take a look at the word religion. What does it mean? Again, we get it confused with dogma. The Latin roots tell us that the true meaning of religion is that which reconnects us. So, spirituality is our inner knowing that we are part of some greater Truth, and religion is the particular set of practices we choose to reconnect us with that Truth. Again from The Season of Nativity, MacBeth offers her thoughts: “Religious means having an outward way to make visible inner feelings like gratitude, awe, and sorrow. I need a way to articulate and incarnate the spiritual thoughts, questions, and beliefs that flutter around my mind. Grateful, awestruck, and sorrow need a framework for their expression. Practices and rituals are important to me because they give form to my devotion and evolving belief and provide a structure for worship and study.”
That said, where does theology belong? What is it, and where does it fit into our understanding of spiritual life? Theology, in its modern usage, means the study of God. The roots take us back to the word of God. What are the self-evident Truths and Principles of Infinite Intelligence?How does Its creative process work? How does It show Its Love? Theology sets out to answer such questions.
And dogma, often confused with either religion or theology, is the set of man-made rules that leaders of a particular faith path have developed to serve as a set of guidelines, as a framework for people to refer to as they attempt to follow a chosen spiritual path. Dogma, from its Latin roots, means opinion. So the main difference between theology and dogma is that theology speaks to us of Spiritual Truth and leads us in a course of study of that Truth. And dogma consists of rules made by people, based on the opinions of other humans, about that theology.
How is this helpful? It allows us to release any resistance we may have around the idea of organized religion, which is simply a group of like-minded individuals who wish to hold similar spiritual practices in community. A spiritual organization need not have dogma. It will, if it celebrates the Presence of God and Its Creative Power in our lives, have a theology. But again, that is only the course of study one chooses to explore Spiritual Truth.
All of that said, we have a foundation that will guide and support our Spiritual Journey together, a journey that has the potential to reveal many things about who we are and how we can more completely partake of the gifts that this time of Nativity…this Season of Light… has to offer. I invite you to check in tomorrow as we explore the meaning of Nativity. Join me in giving ourselves a break this Holy-Day season…as we wax religious without apology.
Know that today and always, I am here to support you.
Know that today and always, you are stronger and wiser than you know.
May we all look to the Light…be well…stay in touch…know our unity…and thrive! And…
May we know the Absolute Beauty and Wonder of this Grace-filled, once-in-a lifetime day, as Infinite Intelligence continues to pour Its blessings upon our world.
