Strengthening Your Spiritual Life

man praying

A healthy and vital spirituality defines who we are and helps us to grow and develop along the way of faith. The way we express our spirituality should be a support and a consolation to us; it should also afford enough challenge to keep us moving forward and to help us avoid complacence.

A Faith Interrupted, p. 127

The crucial thing to understand is that faith needs to be nurtured. No matter where I am in relation to the official Church, or to my local congregation, I must take responsibility for my interior, true self. Ultimately, I must grapple with the God Who Is and how I will relate to God. No one else can do this nurturing for me, and no one else is to blame when I neglect it.

How to nurture the human soul, made by God, designed to be in communion with the Divine Life? Well, don’t ignore those practices that have nurtured souls for centuries and millennia. Sacraments, all types of prayer, spiritual retreat, pilgrimage—even if no farther than the Stations of the Cross in a local church—have been helping souls all along, through various cultures and situations. Sometimes we are greatly helped by spiritual companionship in the form of a spiritual director or prayer partner. There’s reading that focuses on the soul—Scriptures, works of saints and artists, poetry that lifts us out of ourselves. Don’t neglect silence and simple, mindful breathing. Listen for God’s voice, and don’t be surprised where it comes from.

How do care for your soul as a catechist?

About Vinita Hampton Wright 6 Articles
Vinita Hampton Wright has served as senior editor at Loyola Press for 16 years and recently became managing editor of the trade books department. She has written various fiction and non-fiction books, including the novel Dwelling Places with HarperOne, Days of Deepening Friendship and The Art of Spiritual Writing for Loyola Press, and most recently, The St. Teresa of Avila Prayer Book for Paraclete Press. Vinita is a student and practitioner of Ignatian spirituality and is a blogger at dotMagis. For the past few years, she has co-led small groups through the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises. She lives in Chicago with her husband, three cats, and a dog. In her “spare” time these days, she is working on her next novel.

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