Welcome, friend, to the inaugural post of the Good News Spirituality blog. My name is Ann, and I’m the host blogger here at GNS. Not sure how I got tagged for this, and my reaction to the opportunity covered the emotional spectrum. Surprised, honored and humbled, yes. But “alarmed” took first place. I often describe my prayer life as “being the yappy little dog at God’s ankles.” (Yip-yip-grrrr! At least I’m persistent.) Not, in my opinion, the best qualification for the post of “spirituality blogger.” But I’m counting on the fact that there are lots of folks out there with a much deeper appreciation of spirituality. The idea here is for me to kick off a conversation based on Now and Forever, a series of ten-minute videos discussing “Good News spirituality”–a conversation sure to be enriched by reader contributions.

First, a little background…

The Now and Forever video series features Fr. Vincent Freeh, MSC. As a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, Fr. Freeh has served in the trenches of evangelization, both in New Guinea and in a variety of parishes around the United States. He and several immediate family members have also been engaged intermittently in restoring family for more than 20 years. In these ten-minute videos, he reflects on spirituality with the help of Vicky Phillips, a member of his current parish.

The author of the essays forming the basis for their reflections wishes to remain anonymous in order to clear the air of anything that might inhibit open discussion. The essays were originally written more than a dozen years ago under the auspices of the Charles and Catherine Freeh Family Foundation, and the actual author has only a vague recollection of their content.

Now, on to the video…and, I hope, a lively discussion, which I’ll kick off following the video below.

This video covers a lot of ground in ten minutes. But for me, putting spirituality squarely in the context of a parish really sets this apart from the modern approach to spirituality. How often have we heard people say, “I’m spiritual, but not religious”?

The spiritual-but-not-religious person will bring up all the sins committed by organized religions. Some of the more forthright will also admit they don’t want to adhere to a list of “shalts” and “shalt nots.” Hey, we’ve given them the ammunition. Spanish Inquisition, anyone? And a catechetical approach that emphasizes the rules rather than celebrates the “whys” behind them…the certain belief in the dignity of the human person, created by God.

I’m not going to pretend all organized religions are the same. But for the Catholic Church, let’s look at the other side of the tally card. As the meme goes, the Catholic Church–driven by the dignity of the human person–has fed, clothed, educated, and rescued from war, famine, and natural disaster, more people on this planet than any other organization in the world. And that’s just today.

And this is why the parish is so important. Spirituality makes no real difference unless it is acted upon. Acting as an individual is a necessary first step. But acting in concert with a community of faith is a force multiplier. In the parish environment, our spirituality revitalizes not just ourselves, but our family of faith. We are challenged to not just “be spiritual,” but to act on our beliefs in concert with others. Parish-grounded spirituality transforms not just the person, but also the parish, and the Church. We become salt and light, the leaven that transforms our culture and the whole world through corporal and spiritual works of mercy…the living, breathing presence of God’s love.

One aspect of the “spiritual-but-not-religious” approach has bothered me for quite a while, and it’s this: Evil people have absolutely no problem about getting organized. Look back to the last bloody century for lessons from the Nazis and atheistic Communism. If spiritual people avoid religion because sometimes we have strayed into doing evil…we leave the field wide open for organizations of evil intent. To paraphrase the famous saying, “All it takes for evil organizations to succeed is for good organizations to do nothing.”

This is such a wide and deep topic, and the video has so much in it, that I could go on and on…the But I’m taking my cue from the last line of video (Fr. Freeh says there was an error in editing, but I think it’s kind of neat): “Guess what? I’m really curious to find out what you think.”

So, what struck you as you watched this video? The floor is yours.  Rules of the road: Keep it clean, keep it courteous. Other than that, say what you think and feel.