Spiritual Life is Everywhere

We seem to believe that spiritual life is stronger in some places than others.

Some people experience churches, or synagogues, or mosques as places of spiritual life. Some of us seek spiritual life among trees in the forest, or in the mountains, or at the shore. For some, spiritual life is about finding our way home. For others, it is about exploring somewhere new.

We may make a pilgrimage to a place where many people have recognized spiritual life. There may be places we visit each day, each week, each year where spiritual life grows for us.

I have sensed spiritual life more deeply in certain places. I have drawn strength from Whitby Abbey and Lindisfarne in northern England. Spiritual life in me is stronger for having visited Cappadocia and other places in Turkey. I know people who have walked the Camino de Santiago. Others visit Jerusalem or Mecca, Canterbury or Rome, India or Japan.

I am connected to New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California. I spend time there on a silent retreat every year when I can feel my spiritual life being fed.

The fact, though, is that we do not need to go to a particular place to find spiritual life.

Spiritual life is wherever we go because it is everywhere. All of life is an expression of deep spiritual truths. Spiritual life engages our senses, reminding us of its presence. Mountains and oceans, lakes and plains, deserts and pastures, buildings and trees; each reflects the spiritual life in the world.

Spiritual life is wherever we go because we take it with us. Our presence, our actions can spread spiritual life like light in a dark room.

The life in us recognizes the life all around us. The life all around us recognizes the life in us.

How do you find spiritual life?

Where do you recognize spiritual life in the world?

[Image by H G]