Paulist Spirituality – A Personal Take
Writing on “Paulist Spirituality,” is not an easy task for me. That’s because certain tensions exist. The task is to discuss elements of a tradition that is larger than oneself, a common spirituality; yet, one is talking about an experience that is highly personal. The language used to talk about it is very familiar and traditional, even trite; yet, it conveys something about what is most real and true in ourselves, something we always find new and fresh. We feel we’ve “heard it all before;” and yet, words fail us, and we know we can never say enough. Speaking for myself, I’m aware that I’m talking about something I feel I’m bad at practicing; yet, it’s this something that sustains me. In the face of defeats, it is this gift that keeps me going.
Definitions are inadequate when discussing spiritual themes. I can, though, offer some sources to explore.
Personal Sources
Servant of God Isaac Hecker was a seeker, a convert to the church, a mystic and a missionary. He founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, the Paulists, the first order of American Catholic priests. He once wrote of the community he founded: “If one in our Congregation finds that poverty, or obedience, or contemplation, or liberty of spirit, or any other way, is the way that God leads him, he is free to enter by that door.” Hecker walked through many doors (he was enamored of the Carmelite mystics, for example), but he did not mandate a particular path. He appreciated the diversity of the Spirit’s work in individuals. As a spiritual director, Hecker’s belief was that the Holy Spirit was the primary director of the soul. His task was to help remove whatever hindrances existed to receiving the internal direction of the Spirit, so that the work of the Spirit may unfold the fullness of the individual’s unique nature.
We have to find our “doors” — the ways that the Spirit leads us. What nourishes us in our hunger for meaning? What ushers us before the Holy Mystery? What brings us to humility, to wonder, to gratitude and joy? For Hecker, the best way to learn to see God in all things is to learn to see God’s work in the soul, to recognize the ways of the Spirit moving intimately within. It means attending to those inner invitations to follow Christ: to die and rise, to let go of what is destructive in our lives, and to embrace what is life-giving. It means continuously yielding to the Spirit’s inner promptings, in what Hecker called “…a great, painful, and wonderful work.”
The “doors,” our personal sources of spirituality, are everywhere, waiting to be opened. For me, these begin with the Scriptures, especially the Gospels as they awaken us to the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached. They include exploring different prayer forms, appreciating nature, engaging the arts, being open to the work of human relationships, and the challenge of learning to love more. They include formal prayers and writings from the saints and the tradition, which seem to grow with me through life. They include the contemporary spiritual writers that have nourished and influenced me. I find open doors in the city and the wilderness, in work and play, in silence and music, in physical activity and mental exertion, in experiences of good times and bad. I’ve found them on private and communal retreats. I tend to enjoy Benedictine environments — places in the wilderness where I experience the unity of all creation and the rhythms of the day in a new way. In all these things, the hope is to come to the present moment and savor God's presence there.
It’s up to us to find our own doors. For Paulists, even though the doors are diverse, they are evidence of a shared Paulist spirit as they lead us to the unique unfolding of the fullness of our lives.
To be continued…
Mark A. Villano
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