Poll on how you pursue your spirituality

[BenL]

As a spinoff from the "I'm a Catholic ..." thread, I thought it might be interesting to see how people pursue their spirituality, specifically whether they still identify with the faith community they grew up in, a new one, practice alone or don't bother with spirituality at all. Hope these questions aren't to personal for people to vote on.

P.S. I enabled multiple answers because I know how difficult it is to fit yourself into one category.

[Daniel]

I got up at 8 this morning, went to the bathroom, had a glass of water and then sat in meditation for 45 minutes. Oh.....I'm not some paragon of virtue. This is the first time is 2 weeks that I've taken the time to do this. Makes all the difference in the world.

I guess you could say that I practice alone at this point. I grew up in a Protestant faith, spent my adolesence and college years with the Assemblies of God, and then went down several paths until I found myself gravitating towards Eastern/Esoteric Thinking and the teachings of Buddhism. In addition, I've spent many years as a professional singer in churches, my preference being the Episcopal Church. If I was going to sign on the dotted line anywhere in the future, it would be there. That said- I think I'm taking a break from church. The professional part of being in church can give one a peculiar (and not always positive) view of things. And there are other things happening in my life which have kept me from jumping out of bed on Sunday morning and going and sitting in a pew- but I digress.

The big JC is still very much in my experience however. This I can't explain rationally. It just is. Always has been. But that doesn't mean that I think of myself as a born again Christian. There are simply too many code words in that world view -which- for me anyway- have nothing whatsoever to do with the message of Christ.

Side bar: The Buddhist monks who encountered Thomas Merton called him the 'Jesus Lama", which tells me that those who are on the Path- whatever it may be- aren't proprietary about the means to 'get there', and can see in others the very same dynamic which propels them from within.

I rather admire that.

[Zerbie]

I haven't selected one of the answers because they seem to all imply a change somewhere along the line, and my practice of spirituality has never actually changed - it only defined as I learned how to better practice it.

I was raised outside of any church by parents who wanted to leave me to select a religion, or none, on my own.

Anyway, I practice alone and nearly always have. There have been wonderful times when really unique teachers and influences have been present to actively learn from. God, that's wonderful!

[BrianB]

When I came out to myself that plunged me into a "crises of faith". I was raised in very "fundie" churches from a very young age. The kind of churches that preach homo's go to hell...no exceptions...end of discussion. When I finally did admit to being sexually attracted to both genders it was time to find a new church.

I was attracted to the Catholic church because of Mother Teresa and some other catholics that I knew. My reasoning was that at least catholics don't come right out and say you will burn in he** for being gay. The other thing that drew me to become catholic was the peace I felt when attending Mass. I had not ever felt peace like that in other churches.

[Vanessa White]

I was raised in the Catholic church, although our family was really holy day Catholics, we never made a point to go to church weekly, just the high days of celebration/recognition. I do, as Brian said, find still a very peaceful nature in the Catholic mass. I went to a Catholic college, and still felt that pull, and even though I knew the church's view on being gay, never really felt rejected by the church. But I never felt that it would allow them to fully embrace me as a person either. When I finally came out firmly, I had a partner, my present partner, and we had a child, and we both knew, having been raised Catholics, that us as a family would definitely not find a warm embrace in our local, small Catholic church. While looking for other places to be, in order to raise her with the influence, we found a great Methodist congregation in our town. We find the message to be embracing, the pastor is amazing, and it is small and quaint and our daughter loves it there. We also, however, do some work on our own, whether it is meditation time, artistic creation, or just being together as a family talking and sharing has a real spiritual nature to it for us.:love: