Viewpoint from Fr Gordon Williams for 26th August 2011

Fr Gordon Williams

St. Mary’s Catholic Church

 

 

We all need a spiritual dimension in our lives, without it we have no way to overcome the difficulties we all encounter in our everyday lives. Many in today’s society seek happiness and fulfillment in the pursuit of money and material things. The celebrity culture we live in encourages people to seek a more glamorous lifestyle, when in fact many people who are called ‘celebrities’ often live deeply unhappy lives. For most of us life is ordinary, made up of working, caring for the family, looking after elderly parents, paying the bills and many other things that make up our everyday lives. In our hearts we search for a deeper meaning to life.

 

Many people today do not look to religion as our ancestors did. Although church attendance may have dropped the desire for a spiritual dimension is still there. The Christian faith was once the only religion that most people in this country would be familiar with, but today we live in a supermarket of religions and an uprising of humanist ‘none religious beliefs’.  Many profess to have no religious beliefs today.

 

The decline in religious practice today is a concern for our society. If we lose a deep sense of the sacred we lose sight of the wonder of this world and of the great mystery of human life. Life without a sense of the sacred is a life without a sense of mystery. It was Albert Einstein who said “The most beautiful experience we can have is of the mystical, the sacred. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger is as good as dead! To know the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty …. is the centre of true religion.” Of course, Einstein is speaking here of a religious sense rather than any particular belief, or religion.

 

Now that I have been a priest for over twenty five years, I’ve come to realize that religion can mask God. The spiritual journey must begin with the inner search. The inner journey precedes the outer one. Religion and faith can all too often be separated. It’s quite possible to have religion without faith, and religion without faith can be devoid of love and compassion. When the search for God begins as a search for the sacred then we open our hearts to Divine Grace which then sows the seeds of faith. For me now what matters is to live my faith with respect for the beliefs of others. To be grateful for the gift of life. To be open to the presence of God in loved ones and friends, in the mountains and fields, in the oceans and the flowers, in the birds and the trees. God is wonderfully present in all things. Just sitting in thankfulness is real prayer. We must learn from the poets, the mystics who have opened their hearts to the Mystery of this wonderful life and world of ours. We must learn from the authors of the Holy Scripture, of the Psalms, the Prophets. Let us return to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter six and remind ourselves of the lilies of the field. Jesus tells us to look to their beauty!

 

For me spiritual practice means to find time for prayer, time for reading the scriptures and other inspiring writings, including those of other traditions and faiths. Find time to get closer to nature with a gentle walk and feel the sun or the rain. Spiritual practice is open to everyone. You don’t have to be a priest or a monk or a nun. Daily lives are where God is to be found. Gratitude and thankfulness are the foundations of the spiritual life.