What is spirituality?

Spirituality is a buzz word which can mean many things.

In its simplest form, spirituality is about a living faith. It is faith experienced. This description reflects an awareness that faith is much more than believing some facts about God. With this description spirituality is approached from the perspective of the one who believes.

This simple description can be expanded by filling in more detail and by allowing for more perspectives. Spirituality thus can be seen as the divine encounter with humanity. God reaches out to establish a relationship with humanity. The result is that humanity is transformed. But Spirituality is about an ongoing process of transformation.

Each and every spirituality will fill in these perspectives in a specific manner. People will experience God differently (as a judge, as Love, as Righteousness, etc.). People will be transformed in various ways: Mother Theresa and Franciscus reach out to the poor, Thomas Merton becomes a Trappist monk. The process will be different: some will experience deep anguish and stress throughout their spiritual journeys. Others, like Paul, became successful proclaimers of the Word and moved from place to place.

Faith changes everything. Forever. And it moves you to places you never dreamt of. More about this later.