{"id":549,"date":"2016-05-29T09:16:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitychannelseries\/?p=549"},"modified":"2016-05-29T09:16:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:16:30","slug":"what-does-it-take-to-become-a-spiritual-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/what-does-it-take-to-become-a-spiritual-athlete.html","title":{"rendered":"What Does it take to Become A Spiritual Athlete?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In December 2015, Pope Francis approved a second miracle<\/a> attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, thus sealing her path to sainthood \u2013 possibly in September of this year. But what many may not know, is that it was, for many years, a dark and lonely path.<\/p>\n

Although her life has been well documented, it wasn\u2019t until the publication of \"\"<\/a>her memoirs, Come, Be My Light<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in 2007, that we learned of her \u201ccrisis of faith.\u201d The last 50 years of her life where she persistently felt the absence of God.<\/p>\n

In essence her interior life turned barren. A few years after her \u201cinner locution\u201d on the train, when she distinctly heard the voice of Jesus directing her to minister to the poor, any sense of God\u2019s presence seemed very remote. As she noted to her spiritual director:<\/p>\n

In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her critics felt a certain smugness: Underneath it all, they conjectured, she was an agnostic, doubting the existence of God. Those who revered her \u201csaintliness\u201d were perplexed: How could this happen to her? How could a woman of such exceptional generosity, faith and service, not be rock solid in her sense of God\u2019s presence and providence?<\/p>\n

How indeed? Well let\u2019s look at it this way: how could such a crisis of faith\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0happen to her. All the great mystics, saints, and prophets down the ages, at one point or another went through what\u00a0St. John of the Cross<\/a>\u00a0called a\u00a0Dark Night of the Soul<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 a period (short or prolonged) when one\u2019s prayer life, meditations, experience of God\u2019s presence, and overall spiritual life, suddenly dry up leaving one feeling forsaken and very alone.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re Christian you may be familiar with the crucifixion scene from Matthew\u2019s gospel where Jesus (hanging on the cross) cries out, \u201cMy God, My God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d (Mt 27:46) \u2013 that\u2019s an intense experience of what St. John meant by a dark night of the soul.<\/p>\n

Spiritual Athlete<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mother Teresa, like many great saints and spiritual warriors, was \u2013 what Ron Rolheiser calls \u2013 a\u00a0<\/span>Spiritual Athlete.\u00a0<\/i>Her depth of spiritual wisdom, faith, and humanity came at a price \u2013 even if never publicly expressed or disclosed in her lifetime.\u00a0 And that price was those periods of not<\/span>\u00a0feeling<\/i>\u00a0the presence of God in many areas of her spiritual life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And therein lies the key: not<\/span>\u00a0feeling<\/i>\u00a0the presence of God does not mean the absence of God; but rather exemplifies the ebb and flow pattern of the spiritual life. What<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>St. Ignatius of Loyola<\/a>\u00a0(founder of the Jesuits) referred to as\u00a0<\/span>Consolation<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Desolation<\/i>. The deeper one goes in one\u2019s spiritual and prayer life, the more likely it is for one to experience these inter-weaving energies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experiencing them does not necessarily mean that we are spiritual athletes! It simply means that we are human and therefore subject to periodic wrestling with\/adjusting to\u00a0<\/span>dark nights of the soul<\/i>. A good spiritual director\/mentor is advisable at times like these.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Core Essence<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are \u2013 at core \u2013 angelic beings! Perhaps not spiritual athletes; but we have the creative potential to be so much more than we often believe. Remember we are unique and compelling expressions of the divine \u2013 who just need a little dusting down and spiritual tweaking every now and then!<\/p>\n

Image Insert:\u00a0Evert Odekerken\/Wikipedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Side to a Saintly Soul not always known or Appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2586,"featured_media":671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,106,37,38],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-desolation","tag-faith-belief","tag-mother-teresa","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does it take to Become A Spiritual Athlete?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Side to a Saintly Soul not always known or Appreciated.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/what-does-it-take-to-become-a-spiritual-athlete.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does it take to Become A Spiritual Athlete?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Side to a Saintly Soul not always known or Appreciated.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pitstopforthespirituallybamboozled\/2016\/05\/what-does-it-take-to-become-a-spiritual-athlete.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pit Stop for the Spiritually Bamboozled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-29T13:16:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gerard A. 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