Photo: Susannah Stubbs
Relationships as the Spiritual Web of our Lives
Relationships are the spiritual web of our lives. The crucial strands of family, intimate relationships, marriage, friends, community, nature, and place and the wider world.
The quality of our spiritual lives is measured by these essential bonds. Indeed, our relationship with God is reflected and expressed in these and other relationships.
They are the essential meaning and miracle in our days. They are the arena in which we exercise our values and express our visions.
Relationships enrich our lives with intimacy, purpose, healing, and wholeness. They also draw out our fear, anger, envy, hatred, pain, greed, and shame. Through inner work, we can befriend the shadow, face death, and renew our spirits.
As we explore our relationships and the feelings that come with them, we find that they are hitched to everything else in the world. We are parts of the whole and obligated to love both the familiar and the mysterious, often fearsome “other.”
Although terrible and divisive forces may eat away at our relationships, the spiritual web can never be destroyed. The Spirit sustains us as we patch and reweave the web again and again.
Finally, relationships are our training ground. “Being human is an accomplishment like playing an instrument.” Michael Ignatieff once observed. “It takes practice.” Through our connections with the whole and the holy, we learn how to be fully human.
Frederic Brussat Spirituality and Practice
The quality of our spiritual lives is measured by these essential bonds. Indeed, our relationship with God is reflected and expressed in these and other relationships.
They are the essential meaning and miracle in our days. They are the arena in which we exercise our values and express our visions.
Relationships enrich our lives with intimacy, purpose, healing, and wholeness. They also draw out our fear, anger, envy, hatred, pain, greed, and shame. Through inner work, we can befriend the shadow, face death, and renew our spirits.
As we explore our relationships and the feelings that come with them, we find that they are hitched to everything else in the world. We are parts of the whole and obligated to love both the familiar and the mysterious, often fearsome “other.”
Although terrible and divisive forces may eat away at our relationships, the spiritual web can never be destroyed. The Spirit sustains us as we patch and reweave the web again and again.
Finally, relationships are our training ground. “Being human is an accomplishment like playing an instrument.” Michael Ignatieff once observed. “It takes practice.” Through our connections with the whole and the holy, we learn how to be fully human.
Frederic Brussat Spirituality and Practice
What is the "Relational" Part of Relational Theology?
Alexandria: "They say that process theology is a form of 'relational' theology."
Patricia: "Yes, but what does 'relational' really mean?"
Alexandria: "It means that relationships are the spiritual web of our lives: the crucial strands of family, intimate relationships, marriage, friends, community, nature and place and the wider world."
Patricia: "Where did you get that idea?"
Alexandria: "Frederic Brussat."
Patricia: "Oh, I see. Does that mean that spirituality is the art of making positive connections amid these relationships."
Alexandria: "Yes, that's part of spirituality. Not all of it but part of it."
Patricia: "What else is spirituality?"
Alexandria: "See the spiritual alphabet. "C" is for connections, but there's more:
attention - beauty - being present - compassion - connections - devotion - enthusiasm - faith
forgiveness - grace - gratitude - hope - hospitality - imagination - joy - justice - kindness - listening
love - meaning - nurturing - openness - peace - play - questing - reverence - shadow - silence
teachers - transformation - unity - vision - wonder - x, the mystery - yearning - you - zeal
If people emphasize "connection" and that alone, they miss out on a lot of good stuff. And sometimes they forget that people can be suffocated by connections, even if they are good. People need a sense of independence as well as a sense of being connected.
Patricia: "OK, got it, So let's get back to connections with that in mind. So what is God?"
Alexandria: "God is the inwardly felt lure to make positive connections."
Patricia: "Is that all?"
Alexandria: "God is also the cosmic self -- the soul of the universe -- in whose life the universe unfolds and who feels the feelings of all living beings in a compassionate way."
Patricia: "Does God have a spiritual life?"
Alexandria: "Well, yes, in a way. God's spiritual life is the activity of making positive connections of all that is received, transforming the many events into whatever beauty is possible."
Patricia: "What are positive connections?"
Alexandria: "Love."
Patricia: "Oh, I see."
-- Jay McDaniel
Patricia: "Yes, but what does 'relational' really mean?"
Alexandria: "It means that relationships are the spiritual web of our lives: the crucial strands of family, intimate relationships, marriage, friends, community, nature and place and the wider world."
Patricia: "Where did you get that idea?"
Alexandria: "Frederic Brussat."
Patricia: "Oh, I see. Does that mean that spirituality is the art of making positive connections amid these relationships."
Alexandria: "Yes, that's part of spirituality. Not all of it but part of it."
Patricia: "What else is spirituality?"
Alexandria: "See the spiritual alphabet. "C" is for connections, but there's more:
attention - beauty - being present - compassion - connections - devotion - enthusiasm - faith
forgiveness - grace - gratitude - hope - hospitality - imagination - joy - justice - kindness - listening
love - meaning - nurturing - openness - peace - play - questing - reverence - shadow - silence
teachers - transformation - unity - vision - wonder - x, the mystery - yearning - you - zeal
If people emphasize "connection" and that alone, they miss out on a lot of good stuff. And sometimes they forget that people can be suffocated by connections, even if they are good. People need a sense of independence as well as a sense of being connected.
Patricia: "OK, got it, So let's get back to connections with that in mind. So what is God?"
Alexandria: "God is the inwardly felt lure to make positive connections."
Patricia: "Is that all?"
Alexandria: "God is also the cosmic self -- the soul of the universe -- in whose life the universe unfolds and who feels the feelings of all living beings in a compassionate way."
Patricia: "Does God have a spiritual life?"
Alexandria: "Well, yes, in a way. God's spiritual life is the activity of making positive connections of all that is received, transforming the many events into whatever beauty is possible."
Patricia: "What are positive connections?"
Alexandria: "Love."
Patricia: "Oh, I see."
-- Jay McDaniel
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