Saints Peter & Paul  

Have you signed up to receive Sts. Peter & Paul Flocknotes yet? Flocknote is our email system to keep parishioners informed about special events and the latest happenings. If you don't receive our Flocknotes click on the logo above to sign-up!

 
On this day when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit given to those who are baptized and joined to Christ, we find ourselves in an American society where 64 million citizens ─ 1 in 5 ─ describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR), mostly leaving organized religion but still having some kind of belief in something greater than themselves, according to The Atlantic magazine (July 2018).

I suspect that many families reading this can recognize this trend within their own families, especially within their adult children.  They often find the rituals of religion (worship on Sunday, rituals like ashes on Ash Wednesday, no meat on Friday, grace before meals, etc.) as irrelevant. They often feel tied down by traditional morality. If they are impressed by Christ, it is because of his care for the sick and for the poor, which they consider rational.

Those who identify as “spiritual but not religious” seem to desire an openness to everything, to be very concerned about inclusion and togetherness, and they often believe that organized religious restricts those things. They can appear to have faith in everything.

G.K. Chesterton pointed out something he observed in the SBNR people of his day. (SBNR is a modern-day term, which was not found in Chesterton's time.) He said, “Most moderns who say they have faith in everything have faith in nothing.” He also would likely have said, that as the Christians shed their creeds and saints, more people will turn to materialism, atheism and pantheism. Take away the supernatural and what remains is unnatural.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ way of leading us to the truth that we ─ all of us in some way, whether religious believers or spiritualists ─ are all seeking as we try to make sense of our lives. Rather than restricting our search for truth and identity, organized religion opens us up to it.

As for “I’m spiritual, but not religious” people, I point out our national fascination with sports, which is immersed in various kinds of ritual (Star-spangled Banner sung before games, uniforms, rules of the game, etc.). The rejection of religious ritual just leads us to experience ritual in other ways and areas of life.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and renew the face of the earth!

[The ideas about Chesterton and a spiritualist were inspired by John  H. Howling II’s article “What would Chesterton think of “spiritual but not religious?” 9.28/2017 in the website Aleteia.]