When Church Doesn’t Feel Like a Spiritual Place
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“Sitting
in Mass I felt like a machine that could not manage to function properly. I had
all the right parts and pieces, but together they would not produce the desired
outcome. Looking around, it seemed as if everyone else was automatically filled
with God’s grace as soon as they walked in the church doors.
“Church
did not feel like a spiritual place to me,” Annika continues. “I felt judged within its walls and like I
did not belong, because I could not feel what everyone else around me appeared
to be feeling.”
First,
Annika – a high school senior who lives in Amman, Jordan, and appears to be wise
beyond her years – is certainly not alone. Millions of people feel disconnected
when attending church services. In my experience, the liturgy that attracts,
inspires and confirms you in faith is the exception not the rule.
Undoubtedly Clouded
Secondly,
Annika’s observation of others attending church is undoubtedly clouded by the
kind of assumptions that many have in adolescence: that others are feeling and
doing what they’re supposed to do, and doing it better, while we’re not.
Personally,
as a child I was usually OK – and sometimes even moved – by attending Mass,
even though it was in Latin and the priest had his back to the people. It was
sometimes boring, but I found the music beautiful, mysterious and stirring and
the prayers mostly meaningful.
Little
by little, I began investing more of myself in Mass and now I’m getting the
payoff: a weekly experience that is meaningful and prayerful – and sometimes
moving – and that provides bonding with fellow parishioners. I eventually
realized that, just like most things, you have to put something into it to get
something out of it.
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Not
everyone finds God in church, of course, but sometimes the various paths to God
lead back to the kind of communal worship that is so important to faiths like
Christianity. That’s what happened in Annika’s case.
She
stopped going to church and stopped praying. But as a older teen she had the
privilege of traveling to places many of us would consider exotic and tells of
being on a boat crossing the Bosporus in Turkey when she had a wake-up moment.
“The
wind was blowing and the golden sun was shining on my face,” she writes. “An
intense feeling of safety and comfort washed over me. I saw before me birds
flying low over the water. I saw trees blowing in the wind, moving with the
flow of the universe. The sky was cloudless and the kind of ideal blue one sees
only in paintings.
“…And
even as I looked out at the water and took in this completely new vision, a
certain familiarity overtook me. I had felt this before; I had felt this
happiness and excitement for life before. I believe that God was calling me
back through nature at that moment.”
Not
many of us have such moments. And we may be tempted to dismiss Annika’s because
of her youth. But isn’t it possible that they seldom happen because we’re so
caught up in our busyness that we don’t take time to “smell the roses.” May God
be trying to reach us and we’re tuned out?
Helen
Ackermann writes on the subject on the St. Anthony Spirituality Center web
site.
Surrounded by Mystery
“I
have come to the conclusion that experiencing God in nature is not only about
awe, beauty and wonder …. It is more than that. Is it possible that people
feel the presence of God when they are surrounded by mystery? Isn’t it a relief
to not be in control, to not have to understand everything?
“In
our culture it seems that the opposite is true. The kind of control we
need to exercise and the immense knowledge we should possess can lead to
enormous stress. It is much better to accept the mystery of God in nature
and to allow ourselves to simply stand in awe.”
Skeptics
who are open to the many experiences and people God uses to bring us to him are rewarded.
Nature
isn’t everybody’s “thing,” but fortunately, God can be found in teaching a
Kindergarten class or making a sale; in solving mathematics problems or doing
research on the DNA molecule; in helping a neighbor move or praying with a sick
loved one. We just have to be open.
“Finding
God is a very personal experience,” writes Annika. “No one can be sure of when
or where this discovery will take place. But if we listen closely, we will find
that God is always calling his children home. There is nowhere I can go that
God’s love cannot find me. And now, when I walk into his house, I seek God
there, too.”
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