The Spirituality of Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam (arkān-al-Islām أركان الإسلام; also arkān ad-dīn أركان الدين "pillars of religion") are five basic acts in Islam, considered obligatory for all Muslims.
The Qur'an presents them as a framework for worship and a sign of commitment to the faith. They are (1) the shadaha (creed), (2) daily prayers (salat), (3) fasting during Ramadan (sawm), (4) almsgiving (zakat), and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.

Desert Experience



St. John the Divine in the desert by Patrick Pye



Action and Humility

Lk 17: 7-10

There are questions that most of us dread.   What have you done with your life?   How did you treat those whom you met along the way?   Was it a case of maximum return/minimum effort?   At a certain stage we begin to realise all of the things in our lives that will never be.   It can be a very difficult discovery.  There is a certain ‘flatness’ of tone to Jesus’ statement that when we have finished our life’s work and journey, we ought to see that everything we have done is merely what was expected of us.  Most of us didn’t break any records or receive any accolades from others.  But will we be in a position to we say in all honesty that we have tried steadily throughout our time, to play our part in helping the kingdom to come about?’      

Lenten Reflection

Many Christians today are deeply wounded by our culture, church failings, family backgrounds, life experiences, and poor or inaccurate Christian teaching.  This impacts on their lives deeply, making it difficult to discover a deep, warm, and satisfying love relationship to their God.  

If you are Christian, do you find that your efforts to live a Christian life are hampered by the culture in which you live?

Has your family background weakened or strengthened your desire to lead a spiritual life?

Have you had experiences that have arrested your ability to grow in trust in God?

Do you find yourself occasionally thinking that a particular church teaching or religious concept could not possibly be true?

Which of these three events would you regard as most important for the Christian Life?

-         The coming down of the Holy Spirit on the apostles in Jerusalem after the resurrection?

   

-         The changing of the water into wine at Cana?

-         Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the last supper.

The Spirit is power to change and renew us. Put the following in order of priority for you and your life at this time

-         Your faith in God and God’s love within and around you.

-         The quality and depth of your relationships with others.

-         Your ability to leave things in God’s hands.

-         The grace to be able to pray in a deeper, more meaningful way.

-         To forgive myself and others the wrong I have done

-         Understanding how I can focus on the future and leave the past behind.

-         Rediscovering my Christian Faith in an Adult Mature context

The ability to recognize the good in others and in the world

Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths:

The Buddha's Four Noble Truths explore human suffering. They may be described (somewhat simplistically) as:

1. Dukkha: Suffering exists: (Suffering is real and almost universal. Suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, the impermanence of pleasure.)
    
2. Samudaya: There is a cause for suffering. (It is the desire to have and control things. It can take many forms: craving of sensual pleasures; the desire for fame; the desire to avoid unpleasant sensations, like fear, anger or jealousy.)
    

3. Nirodha: There is an end to suffering. (Suffering ceases with the final liberation of Nirvana (a.k.a. Nibbana). The mind experiences complete freedom, liberation and non-attachment. It lets go of any desire or craving.)
    
4. Magga: In order to end suffering, you must follow the Eightfold Path.

Living in Christ

"To 'live in Christ' is to live in a mystery equal to that of the Incarnation and similar to it.   For as Christ unites in his one person the two natures of God and of humankind, so too in making us his friends he dwells in us, uniting us intimately to himself."    - Thomas Merton

Keeping it Simple

During Lent, who can fail to be struck by the opening words of the spiritual classic The Way of a Pilgrim?

“By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner, and by calling, a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth who roams from place to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack and some dried bread in it, and a Bible in my breast pocket. And that is all.”

Contemplation

The world becoming luminous
from within
as one plunges
breathlessly
into human activity

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The Samaritan Woman

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

 ¹The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

 ⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
 ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
 ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])
 ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
 ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
 ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
 ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water
so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
 ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he.²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.  Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world."

The Wisdom of Julian of Norwich

“God rejoices that he is our Father, and God rejoices that he is our Mother, and God rejoices that he is our true spouse, and that our soul is his beloved wife. And Christ rejoices that he is our brother; and Jesus rejoices that he is our saviour”

John Michael Talbot - 'Only in God'

My Heart is Ready

My heart is ready, Yes! My heart is ready!

like a desert I am parched. My soul of sand

soaking up the rain at once is dry again, and

the inner fount of life is rank and deadly.

In such abysmal straits, remind the self

that we are loved, for all our self-despair;

that Jesus Christ has sought us out, that care

will open up the inner streams of health.

God’s love is real and God’s affection never spent.

So, be watered, tended; be refreshed, this Lent.

Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims1 sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. 2 Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

Celebration

“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities

or in the country gather together to one place, and

the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the

prophets are read, as long as time permits; then,

when the reader has ceased, the president verbally

instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as

we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the assent, saying Amen;”

 ...Justin Martyr

In book 18 of the Antiquities, 63-64, the text of Josephus Flavius as we have it

today says:

About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is lawful to call him a man, for he was a performer of wonderful deeds, a teacher of such men as are happy to accept the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again on the third day, as the prophets of God had foretold these and ten thousand other wonders about him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.'   

E.E.CUMMINGS

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings:

and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from the no

of allnothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I Gaze On You in the Sanctuary

Psalm 63 

¹ O God, you are my God, 
       earnestly I seek you; 
       my soul thirsts for you, 
       my body longs for you, 
       in a dry and weary land 
       where there is no water.

 ² I have seen you in the sanctuary 
       and beheld your power and your glory.
 ³ Because your love is better than life, 
       my lips will glorify you.
 ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, 
       and in your name I will lift up my hands.
 ⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; 
       with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
 ⁶ On my bed I remember you; 
       I think of you through the watches of the night.
 ⁷ Because you are my help, 
       I sing in the shadow of your wings.
 ⁸ My soul clings to you; 
       your right hand upholds me.

Dying to Ourselves

"If we have died with him, we shall also live with him" (2 Tim 2:11).

"It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth" (St. Ignatius of Antioch).

"My desire is to depart and be with Christ" (Phil 1:23).

"There is living water in me that says within, ‘Come to the Father'" (St. Ignatius of Antioch).

 "In order to see God, I must die" (St. Teresa of Avila).

"I am not dying, I am entering life" (St. Theresa of Lisieux).

A Prayer for Justice

            

                                                         Lord, may justice flow like a river
                                                    reaching barren lands and sun scorched

                                                                           deserts

Where people feel forgotten and hopeless

Let your water of life

Comfort them

Where children lie abandoned or abused

Let your water of life

Protect them 
Where communities suffer at the hands of prejudice

Let your water of life

Shield them 

Lord, we ask for a mighty downpour of grace from Heaven 
May your sons and daughters hear your voice
May we live as you lead us to live
Go as you bid us to go
Serve as you inspire us to serve
Give as you teach us to giveUntil the earth is covered with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea
Amen

Eccles (Sir) 1:1-10 All wisdom is from the Lord and it is his own for ever.   When I take time out and look around Lord, what a beautiful creation you have given us.   I am amazed at the miracles of nature and the vastness of the vision which has produced this wonderful earth.  The human mind seems puny and ineffectual against the backdrop of the infinite intelligence that underlies its changes and progressions.   And yet you have shared some of that wisdom with the human race. If only we drew on it more often and loved you more deeply in order to receive it.