Where Spirituality Takes Place

Hiking in Yungapampa. Not 40Km (as the crow flies) from Cochabamba . . . but worlds apart

Bike Shop in Tiquipaya

(Feb 29, 2013)

Inca paintings in Yungapampa

In times past -- just recently, perhaps--Western Christian spirituality made its home in churches and cathedrals.  But now in its "teenage years" (dare we call them) spirituality's relationships at "home" are a little tense.  Sprituality wanders the world, and is inclined to do more as it pleases, combating the rules laid down by parental cathedrals and religious institutions.  Spirituality dresses in formally unrecognizable clothing, putting mother modesty and father tradition on edge.  Spirituality stays out lates, sometimes till closing hour at dingy bars, other nights simply lingering in the conversation between mouths and hearts, and another pot of midnight tea.  

Jesus tried to explain to "the pueblo" of his day, that Spirituality was making a new home--new wineskins.  And the religious people and institutions of the day would have to adjust, to lay aside their prized old wineskins and religious certainty, so as to listen to the new evolving home of spirituality.  

I am not suggesting we wipe out religious institutions altogether--though perhaps that option should always remain on the table.  But that we recognize the evolving home of spirituality, and we set aside insistence in the wineskins of then, for the home spirituality is making now, and the ultimate home where she will rest. 

Like any adolescent, it's natural that Spirituality spend more time outside the home of her parents, testing the waters of the world:  where'll she'll be accepted, where she'll be useful, where she will blossom into her fullest self.