Spirituality

A glance through any Catholic publisher’s catalog will find titles on different spiritualities for men or women, religious or laypeople – as many “spiritualities” as Starbucks has coffees. Eastern Churches recognize one spirituality to which we are all called, with different degrees of intensity. We are invited to live the very life of God, to become intimately related to God – “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4), to be physically united to Christ and to have the Holy Spirit dwell within us. Eastern Christian spirituality stresses:

• Awareness of our call to be divinized;
• The organic nature of our sacramental union with Christ;
• A “public life” of worship and communion;
• A “secret life” of prayer, fasting and almsgiving; and
• The need for “spiritual warfare.”