Lenten Journey: Aspects of Spirituality – Rituals

Today, I want to talk about another spoke in the wheel of spirituality – Rituals.

Once again, we are familiar with the general concept of rituals. Depending on your age, you have probably attended numerous weddings and funerals, two of the most common rituals. And it is also more than likely that those rituals were based in familiar patterns of a particular religious tradition. But have you ever attended one of these rituals with a mind toward paying attention to what is going on at a deeper level?

Take a wedding for example. Aside from the basic element of making a decision to spend their lives together, there are many other things going on as part of the commitment. The two families that are coming together are often acknowledged either by their opportunity to offer a blessing or simply the formal way they enter the ceremony. The couple choose readings that often represent what they think of this moment in their lives, the meaning of commitment, or the presence of God or love in this moment. They share vows with each other which state explicitly what their commitment to each other is going to mean moving forward. They often exchange rings that are a lovely gift but will also symbolize this commitment as they continue to wear that ring each day. And the ceremony often ends with a blessing that sums up the significance of this day.

All of this is to say that there are a LOT of things that are about to happen in the lives of these people and those things are given greater conscious attention during the ritual of a wedding.

In light of that, I’d like to propose a definition for ritual. A ritual is anytime we do anything with conscious intention. Some rituals, like weddings and funerals, are culturally repetitive. We do them regularly and frequently as a community. Other rituals are personally repetitive. We do them as a regular pattern in our own lives.

So, we’ve discussed on community ritual that puts conscious intention into the beginning of a marriage. Let me share how even the most mundane act can become a ritual. Like most people, I brush my teeth every morning. But what if, instead of just brushing my teeth, I take that two minutes to reflect on my day, to think about how I want to enter the day, how I want to be with my children as I take them to school, how I want to engage all of my interactions throughout the day with intention to a particular dynamic I’m trying to engender. What WAS a habit is now a ritual.

We can do that with any activity in our life. Imbue a regular practice or habit with greater intention and consciousness. A morning run. The daily commute. Taking time in the morning to simply sit and reflect. Prayer. Meditation. Journaling. All of these are rituals that you can add to your life.

What rituals do you have in your life that supports you? What rituals would you like to add? How can you make that happen? (Hint: Start small. If you want to meditate, don’t start by meditating for 30 minutes. Start with three and build up from there.) Make a commitment to develop more conscious intentions in your life.  

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You are welcome to take this journey in solitude in your own personal journal or share your reflections. If anything that you do makes you think you might want to continue a journey using Spiritual Direction, now or in the future, you can make an appointment with me through my website: 

www.RedRocksSDC.com 

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