Joan Chittister AUGUST 2024
THE MONASTIC WAY
...daily insights to stir the heart and seed the soul.
WHAT IS RELIGION AND
WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY ?
Religion and spirituality are not the same things. They
are, however, commonly confused. “She goes to church
every week,” we say. “She’s a very spiritual person.” Or
we note that, “He’s a staunch member of the parish
finance committee. He’s a very spiritual person.” It’s an
interesting conjunction of unlike ideas. It’s the
equivalent of saying, “She’s an excellent vocalist. She’s
been taking singing lessons for years.” There’s certainly
a connection between taking voice lessons and
becoming a professional vocalist, but it’s not a
necessary one. The truth is that we can go through the
motions about something all our lives and never really
become what the thing itself is meant to make us.
Religion and spirituality are like that, too. The one,
religion, has to do with leading us to an awareness of
God. The other, spirituality, has to do with
transforming the way we live out that awareness.
Sometimes we stop at one and fail to become the other.
JO CLARKE
It’s when we make religion itself our substitute for God
that, ironically, our spirits stand to wither or calcify.
The ancient spiritual masters understood the confusion
only too well. They wrote:
Once upon a time, as the Master lay dying, the and the theology is meant to describe. They go beyond
disciples begged him, for their sakes, not to go. ritual to the reality to which it points. They melt into
“But if I do not go,” the Master said, “how will God. They embrace the whole world. They become love
you ever see?” and compassion.
“What are we not seeing now that we will see Mystics go beyond the norms of every religion to the
when you are gone?” they asked. God every religion is established to revere. Then,
denominational boundaries disappear, differences
And the Master said, “All I ever did was sit on dissolve, theological distinctions become meaningless
the river bank handing out river water. After and we find ourselves welded to the presence of God
I’m gone, I trust you will notice the river.” here and now. In everything. Everywhere. At all times.
Religion is only a bridge to God—and sometimes even The Sufi poet Hafiz put it this way:
an obstacle.
The great religions are the ships,
The difference between religion and spirituality is the Poets the lifeboats.
difference between orthodoxy and mysticism. The Every sane person I know has jumped overboard!
orthodox are those who keep the rules and guard the
creeds of all the denominations of the world. They That is good for business, isn’t it, Hafiz?
know a heretic when they see one.
The mystics of every religion are those who are looking
for more than the security that the rules give in order to
absorb the spirit to which the rules are meant to refer.
They go beyond theology to immerse themselves in the
reality which the rules are designed to prepare us to see
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1: It is very of the body.” But that kind of spirit- with all its joy and all its sense of
easy to be “religious.” All we have to uality can lead us to devalue the goodness be stamped out, there is
do is to keep the rules. The question beautiful, the sensual, the physical something wrong with that religion.
is, What for? And does it mean any- and the real. It can even lead us to “We are not human beings trying to
thing to anyone but me? If not, is it devalue ourselves. It says that what be spiritual,” Wayne Dyer says. “We
really religion at all? God has given us to take us to the are spiritual beings trying to be
divine is itself bad. human.”
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2: Sometimes
we’re religious in order to guarantee a FRIDAY, AUGUST 9: The notion WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14: Sins
payoff at the end of life. The truly reli- that to be spiritual we need to deval- committed in the name of religion are
gious person, the person who is actu- ue the material is an idea that comes still sins. When Christian Crusaders
ally “spiritual,” on the other hand, is from pagan Greece. The new group conquered Jerusalem in 1099, they
walking a bridge between time and of philosophers, those who loved massacred every Muslim man, wom-
eternity with an eye to having one wisdom, glorified the mind when the an and child in the city, 70,000 of
dissolve into the other even here. religion of Greece ceased to per- them. When Saladin, the Muslim
suade. But devaluation of matter is general, retook the city for Islam 100
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3: Spirituality not the incarnational insight of a years later, the Christian population
is what carries us, leads us, drives us Christian. The birth of Jesus re- was treated “with the generous leni-
between religious or spiritual “exer- minds the Christian that everything ency of Islam’s highest ideals for the
cises.” It’s the way we go about life on about life—the body, the parties, the conduct of war.” Which of the two
a daily basis because of what we say people around us, the work—is all were really religious then?
we believe. sacred.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15: Religion
Until there is in us is meant to develop in us the disci-
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4: If religion is
plines and sensitivity and regularity
so sanctifying, why is it that there are no difference that enable us to direct our lives to-
so many wars, so much killing, such between the sacred ward the sacred in all circumstances
unlimited oppression, so much reli- at all time. Or as Christina Baldwin
and the secular,
gious support for state violence?
the material put it, “The spiritual journey is the
Maybe it’s because what religion
soul’s commingling with ordinary
is lacking is spirituality—the spirit of and the spiritual,
life.”
the God it preaches. there is no spiritual in us.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16: Religion itself
MONDAY, AUGUST 5: Spirituality is is not sacred. And, if or when it pre-
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10: Spiritu-
the way we respond to God. It is life tends to be, it can stop a soul in mid-
ality is what takes us beyond reli-
according to the spirit of God. That’s flight from ever being able to find
gious practice to the purpose of reli-
a far piece from life lived according to God in the midst of life. Then we
gion: the awareness of the sacred in
the rules. make the means the end. Then we
the mundane.
take a spiritual process designed to
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6: “To sin it is SUNDAY, AUGUST 11: We wonder help us find God in life and turn it
not necessary to break the rules,” the how it is that religion can do so into God. And that is a weak and pa-
sage said. “Just keep them to the let- much violence, feed on so much ex- thetic substitute.
ter.” It is more than possible to make tremism, lead to such self-
rules the reason for our existence, the destruction. The answer is, of SATURDAY, AUGUST 17: Religion
measure of our souls. But when rule- course, that that kind of religion is can be addictive. We can miss all of
keeping takes precedence over the not about coming to the spirit of life around us where God really is be-
very essence of spirituality—justice, God. It has stopped short of God cause we are too busy being religious
compassion and union with God— because it has its own agenda: con- to notice. Kaplan puts it this way,
rules become the very thing that can trol, perhaps; vengeance, maybe; “People whose religion begins and
destroy the reason for our existence. fear, for sure. But God is in none of ends with worship and ritual practic-
those things. “Every day,” Lenny es are like soldiers forever maneuver-
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7: People Bruce says, “people are straying ing, but never getting into action.”
kept the rules in Nazi Germany and away from the church and going
destroyed the spirit that the Gospels back to God.” SUNDAY, AUGUST 18: When we
came to teach. Ironically enough, it were young sisters, we were not per-
was the spirit that Germany needed, MONDAY, AUGUST 12: Religion is mitted to go to the chapel between
not the rules. Their new rules about the glue of a society. It teaches ethics community prayer times. “Do not
euthanasia, antisemitism, in fact and community and awareness of wish to be called holy before you
eventually led to their destruction. God. It brings us to the starting are holy,” we read in The Rule of
The same thing can happen to us. point of a holy life. The rest is up Benedict.
to us.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8: In the 12th MONDAY, AUGUST 19: My novice
century, spirituality came to mean TUESDAY, AUGUST 13: When mistress wasn’t interested in pseudo-
“not corporeal,” “not material,” “not religion requires that our humanity saints. She didn’t want us sitting
around waiting for God to find us. She answer to that, the message is—do WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28: Is
wanted people who took God with more of it. one place more religious than
them everywhere they went. another? Is a monastery holier than
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25: “Rub your a home, for instance? Amma
TUESDAY, AUGUST 20: When we eyes and be awake,” Mikhail Syncletica, one of the desert moth-
turn the God of love into the God of Naimy wrote. Look for God where ers said, “It is possible for one who
law, we have missed God entirely. God is—in front of you. Religion is is a solitary to live in a crowd of per-
“There is no religion without love,” the rubbing of the eyes; spirituality sonal thoughts. And it is also possi-
Anna Sewell wrote, “and people may is coming to see. ble to be a solitary in one’s mind
talk as much as they like about their while living in a crowd.” What
religion, but if it does not teach them When religion requires counts is only whether we are con-
to be good and kind to human and that our humanity … scious of God wherever we are.
beast, it is all a sham.” A sham. and all its
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29: Reli-
sense of goodness gion is the storehouse of tradition,
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21: The fact
be stamped out, the keeper of historical memories of
that I can drive a car tells me little or
nothing about its inventor. That’s there is something wrong sanctity, the doctrines and dogmas
what reading about religion tells me with that religion. that call us back again and again to
about God. Religion is something that who and what we are supposed to
is meant to be lived, not studied. MONDAY, AUGUST 26: Every reli- be. It is the finger pointing at the
gion uses some kind of prayer aids— moon; it is not the moon.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22: Jesus did- rosaries, stations, sitting meditation,
n’t preach a religion. He never said a candles—to bring us into the pres- FRIDAY, AUGUST 30: It’s not the
word about how to celebrate Jewish ence of God—which means, of body or the mind that keeps us go-
holy days, for instance, or what pro- course, to bring us into the center of ing in hard times. It is the quality of
nouns to use when praying or how to ourselves where God dwells. the spiritual life within us. Emerson
conduct the sacrifices. Jesus preached said, “The foundations of a person
God and the coming of the reign of TUESDAY, AUGUST 27: A “prayer are not in matter but in spirit.” Not
God. They are two different things. aid”—a rosary or a candle, for to feed the spirit is to starve life of
instance—is something “religious.” its purpose when we seem to have
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23: Until there is The awareness of the presence of none.
in us no difference between the God here and now, on the
sacred and the secular, the material other hand, is “spiritual.” They go
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31: Or as
and the spiritual, there is no spiritual together, yes, but it is possible to Dante Gabriel Rossetti put it, “The
in us. be in the presence of God worst moment for an atheist is
without lighting a candle and it is when he is really thankful, and has
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24: Spirituali- also possible to light a candle and nobody to thank.”
ty asks the question, Where is God for be completely oblivious of the
you? Then, when you know the presence
around us.
of God everywhere
LET’S SHARE OUR THOUGHTS
The following discussion questions, Scripture echo, journal prompts, and prayer are meant to help you
reflect more deeply on The Monastic Way. Choose at least two suggestions and respond to them. You
may do it as a personal practice or gather a group interested in sharing the spiritual journey.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you agree with Joan Chittister’s explanation 4. Joan Chittister uses other literature to reinforce and
of the distinction between religion and spirituality? expand her writing. Find another quote, poem, story,
If not, how would you differentiate between them? song, art piece, or novel that echoes the theme of this
Or do you see them as one and the same? Why? month’s Monastic Way.
2. Which daily quote in The Monastic Way is most 5. Sister Joan writes, “Religion is the storehouse of tra-
meaningful to you? Why? Do you agree with it? dition, the keeper of historical memories of sanctity, the
Disagree? Did it inspire you? Challenge you? Raise doctrines and dogmas that call us back again and again
questions for you? to who and what we are supposed to be. It is the finger
pointing at the moon; it is not the moon.” What is your
3. After reading The Monastic Way write one current relationship with religion? With spirituality?
question that you would like to ask the author
about this month’s topic.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Prompt 1: Here are a few statements from this month’s Monastic
Way. Choose one that is most helpful to you and journal with it.
•When we turn the God of love into the God of law, we have
missed God entirely.
•The birth of Jesus reminds the Christian that everything about
life—the body, the parties, the people around us, the work—is
all sacred.
•A “prayer aid”—a rosary or a candle, for instance—is something
“religious.” The awareness of the presence of God here and
now, on the other hand, is “spiritual.” They go together, yes,
but it is possible to be in the presence of God without lighting a
candle and it is also possible to light a candle and be complete-
ly oblivious of the presence of God everywhere around us.
Prompt 2: Spend a few minutes with this photograph and journal
about its relationship to this month’s Monastic Way. You can do
that with prose or a poem or a song or....
JO CLARKE
PRAYER
“Prayer for Dialogue with Greater Religions”
I bow to the one who signs the cross.
I bow to the one who sits with the Buddha.
I bow to the one who wails at the wall. SCRIPTURE ECHO
I bow to the OM flowing in the Ganges.
“This is what God asks of you, only this: to
I bow to the one who faces Mecca, whose forehead
touches holy ground. act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly
I bow to dervishes whirling in mystical wind. with your God.”
I bow to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west. —MICAH 6:8
I bow to the God within each heart.
I bow to epiphany, to God’s face revealed.
I bow. I bow. I bow.
—Mary Lou Kownacki
Joan Chittister JOAN CHITTISTER is an internationally known
The Monastic Way Vol. 33 No. 8
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