We concluded the evaluation of the Brothers today. Of the main five sectors that we based our remarks on, the one dealing with the spiritual dimension was a bit tricky. Well one might wonder what's so difficult about spiritual dimension for those who intend to become priests? That's exactly the difficulty. So sometime right in the beginning we agreed that in that section we would not limit ourselves to merely talking or evaluating the practices of piety or punctuality for Mass and capability of reciting prayers and singing. I, for one, extended (or say, defined) spirituality to mean integrity, a sense of balance and constancy in life as a whole, not just in and around the Church and prayer.
While practices of piety and prayers are part of spirituality, to restrict the latter to the former is absurd... though very many do that and fail to see the larger picture. But I was glad we collectively agreed upon this wider picture of spirituality. So we repeatedly asked ourselves, 'How is this person in his overall outlook towards life and relationships? Is he balanced? Does he live a rather steady and coherent life? Is there a basic sense of integrity and communion in the various aspects of his heart, mind, body, spirit and attitude?
While practices of piety and prayers are part of spirituality, to restrict the latter to the former is absurd... though very many do that and fail to see the larger picture. But I was glad we collectively agreed upon this wider picture of spirituality. So we repeatedly asked ourselves, 'How is this person in his overall outlook towards life and relationships? Is he balanced? Does he live a rather steady and coherent life? Is there a basic sense of integrity and communion in the various aspects of his heart, mind, body, spirit and attitude?
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