Elan – The Secret of Life

Spirituality  and Personal Energy 
Sahaya G. Selvam
 
This reflection has a simple thesis: the secret of affective maturity consists in the ability to maintain an equilibrium of inner energy level. One might call this inner state: serenity, peace, and equanimity; however, it is not a passive serenity but an energised vitality. Using insights from contemporary psychology and the classical Christian spirituality, I will explore the dynamics of our inner energy. I will point out the relationship between spirituality and stable energy levels, and the adverse impact of energy-swings on spirituality and affective maturity.
What is personal energy?  Physics defines energy as the quantitative capacity of a body to work on another. There are different types of energy such as heat, light, sound, gravity, etc.
In the human being, ‘personal energy’ is the inner state […]

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Multicultural Religious-Spirituality in Religious Life Today

Multicultural Religious-Spirituality in Religious Life Today
0.1.Change versus chaos = Integration:  Interaction with other cultures and diverse worldviews – even in international religious communities – would often entail some change in my own worldview. Faced with change we fear chaos.  True, too much change could bring about chaos.  Fearing chaos in the face of change we might tend to fall back to rigidity.  Some people tend to polarise these movements in terms of right and left, or as being conservative or progressive. The solution to this lies in integration.  Virtue lies in the ‘integrated’ middle! 
0.2.  Truth-claims and meaning: When it comes to most truths that we hold dear – most of which are products of a certain brainwashing by the institutions of culture and religion in which we have been brought up – we need to be humble to accept that they are only ‘truth-claims’ and not the absolute truth! Therefore, in […]

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Religious Life – Father Savio’s Fate

“Father Savio was a hard worker, great builder and a good religious.” This is how the provincial would have ended his eulogy at the funeral of Fr Savio.
Fr Savio had built several churches in the missions, and supervised even the construction of a formation house. He was not just a supervisor in these construction sites; often he worked in them himself. He was a six-footer with a well built physique -he could carry two cement bags on either hands and go up the stairs.  He could drive long distances without any food or drink.  Every one in the province praised him as a self-sacrificing Religious.
He said his prayers, whenever he was in the house.  When he could not join monthly recollections – everyone knew Fr Savio was busy.  Often he did not celebrate daily mass;  sometimes he exercised his baptismal priesthood.  When it was his turn to preside at the community Eucharist, he was more […]

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Religious Life – The Active Ants

There was once a colony of ants.  The colony was divided into many units, and each unit had its leader and the colony itself had its own leaders.  Every unit was known for its hard work and tremendous activity. Since they worked hard some were always tired and sick, so others had to work harder.  They worked so hard that they had no time for reflection, evaluation and planning.  They always consoled themselves dreaming of the day when they will have enough ants to accomplish all their work.  But that day never came.  The new recruits always filled gaps.  Their numbers never increased because of the situation that they had created for themselves some died (after all, isn’t true that ants do die?), others got sick and still others dropped out of the colony.
It is not that the ants were little devils.  They always said their prayers (problem was perhaps they only said prayers!), they obeyed their rules (they were […]

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Indian Missionaries in Africa

Missionaries from India Karibuni Africa!
The other day I met Neema.  She is a Tanzanian, and a candidate for a congregation of sisters who hail from South India and who have now some convents in Tanzania.  She wears the churidar, speaks English with a strong Indian accent and shakes her head like a doll as she gives her assent.  Whose fault is it?  Is it the 18 year old Neema’s, who agreed to be Indianized, or is it that of those holy nuns who refused to be indigenized?
I heard from a fellow Indian missionary that in a convent in Tanzania, the local cook speaks very well one of the languages of South India.  In fact I was told that on the one hand, the sisters are proud of their feat, on the other hand they regret that they are not able to speak any secret among themselves at table anymore.  I […]

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