Welcome! We return now to our regular series, with the second session of Now and Forever.

“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things came to be through him.” (Jn1:1, 3)

Words have power. God Himself spoke Creation into existence through His Word, Jesus Christ.

As we explore apostolic spirituality, it’s good to pause and consider the power words have to change us for good or ill, and to recognize our human tendency to twist our words to suit our own agendas, and even to please others. In other words…we lie. Small lies, big lies, habitual lies, convenient lies, and the ever-popular “half-truth.” The lies divide us from each other, from our own best selves, and from God. We lie so much that, like Pilate, we are trapped in the “mindless relativism” that asks with bitter cynicism, “What is truth?”  –even when Truth stands right in front of us.

But, like Christ, we can be silent in the face of this question, and still have a powerful answer. Christ’s response wasn’t in what He said, but in what He did. In His passion and death on the cross for the sake of our salvation, He united both truth and love in concrete action. This is Christ’s call to apostolic spirituality.

As the session title says, spirituality is a difficult word. Looking it up in a dictionary doesn’t help much. Too often, we’re content with the abstract definition. We’d rather think about spirituality than do something about it. I like the reflection’s emphasis on the reality of spirituality, because we only find spirituality’s meaning when we act. When we do something positive, and different–maybe even life-changing–because of our belief in Jesus Christ, we grow spiritually, and so does the world.

Through our actions, we teach the world again the real meaning of “love,” and so they again begin to learn the meaning of “truth.”

What does this mean in practical terms? For me, it meant going back to the seven corporal works of mercy, and seven works of spiritual mercy, and realizing I needed to practice them in a regular, intentional way. (Need a refresher on what those are? I did. Here’s a link to the Catholic Encyclopedia.) I found out that I was already doing some of these–but maybe not as well as I should. And some were gaping holes. And some, I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for. (Effectively “admonishing the sinner” requires more tact than I can usually muster.) But this is where the rubber meets the road, where my own spiritual growth makes a positive difference to the world.

Please share your thoughts. What strikes you about this video session? What are some of the ways that you apply spirituality to the daily reality of life? We’ve just come through Lent…now, let’s get ready for Pentecost.

Have a blessed Easter season!