Fred emails:
I am about 1/2 through reading the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. (Don’t worry–I’m not converting. A friend gave me a copy.)
This book interests me because it dwells on the spiritual objective of Catholicism as, essentially, communing with God. Query: What does spirituality mean to you? Spirituality is almost alien to me. When I read discussions on the subject, it is almost like describing a sense that I do not have. For example, if I were deaf from birth, it would be like describing what it is like to hear. I have no reference point.
An ex-girlfriend of mine suggests that spirituality is related to instincts and feelings one has towards one’s parents when one is an infant, and perhaps one’s ability to experience spiritualism relates to one’s relations with one’s parents.
What do you think?
I would define spirituality as the awareness of a dimension in life beyond the physical. I feel it at times, such as at Yosemite.
Joe says: "That’s how Heschel begins his book "man is not alone", and uses that metaphor as defining the ineffable, the sense that there is more to the universe than can be expressed in a qualitative rather than a quantitative manner. It’s a very beautiful passage, and no surprise to me that a whole group of semi-converts in Japan virtually worship him as a prophet."
