Spirituality: A topic that can drag us away from spirituality

2. One of the first things you as a student of the interior spiritual life will be faced with is the tendency to leave the inner life untended while studying about it. We become like artists who leave their studios in order to talk about art – never again to pick up a brush or mix a color.

While it is important to take good direction in matters of the spirit, a good balance must always be maintained. The actual formation of our own spirit occurs when we deliberately place ourselves under the influence of the Spirit of God by what we can generally call our prayerfulness. For the spiritual person, it is needful to be more aware of God’s work within, and to be more deliberate in bringing oneself into the loving embrace of God.

We are not critics or commentators on the spiritual life. We are participants. We are not cheering for the team. We are ON the team.

           So, at the outset, let us not allow the topic of the interior life itself to become a distraction from our involvement in and our connection to that very life.