The Four Pillars Of A Healthy Spirituality

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The Four Pillars of Healthy Spirituality

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In his famous work called The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality,

Father Ronald Rolheiser shows that both spirituality and religiousness, prayer and doing good

matter. He goes on to outline four important pillars which are:-

i. Being attentive to private morality and prayer (Rolheiser, 2014),

ii. Living a life that is tuned to social justice (Rolheiser, 2014),

iii. Softness of both hearty and spirit (Rolheiser, 2014), and

iv. Getting involved in community worship (Rolheiser, 2014).

Through the examination of these four essential pillars, Father Ronald Rolheiser tries to integrate

all the essential aspects of our lives towards the creation of a healthy spirituality.

Although Rolheiser does not direct the book solely towards the youth, he sets it out as an

enlightening work for any person in the vocational journey and with the intention of realizing a

healthy and fulfilling spirituality. For a person to understand the nature of their call, they have to

be in touch with all the aspects of their spirituality. The energy that acts as a guide to us in our

journey towards good will is located in our spirituality. It is the duty of a human being to discover

this energy and get into tune with it to fully realize their spiritual health (Rolheiser, 2014). Through

this work, Rolheiser systematically leads the reader into a development of awareness of and

listening to his or her own spirituality.

The world is culturally and religiously heterogeneous. Nevertheless, Rolheiser uses the

Christian faith as the lens through which the source of the human spirit can be seen. Rolheiser

holds that everyone is naturally inclined to uniting with other human beings through communities

established within the church to see the presence of God in our daily lives, in the world and even

in our own deepest selves (Rolheiser, 2014). He says that if we happen to neglect even the smallest

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aspect of our faith and spiritual lives, we are likely to lose our balance in live and indulge in things

that are inimical to us.

Rolheiser particularly gives us the insight that we should strive to always be aware of the

current state in which our spirituality is. Many people tend to fall into two major mistakes. The

first mistake he calls ‘living in a spirituality of the ideal. This involves constructing for ourselves

an enhanced image so that we can impress ourselves and the other people around us (Rolheiser,

2014). The second mistake, which seems to be more detrimental than the first, is to live in

resentment of the past and what happened in it. This causes us to seek to compensate ourselves

from the bruises of the past and freezes the ability to heal from the past atrocities and accept the

situation we are in at the moment.

Therefore, there are two ways in which we can develop a healthy spirituality. These are

ownership and consistency. Human beings are not perfect and cannot be perfect. In order to

achieve a restful and healthy spirituality, we have to accept our state and own the weaknesses we

have, no matter how inadequate we are (Rolheiser, 2014). Setting up standards that are higher than

what we can achieve will only leave us frustrated and ailing spiritually. In addition, we have to be

consistent in the way we lead our lives. This applies not only to the public spheres of our lives but

also the private ones. This will enable us to own ourselves and contain our inadequacies

comfortably, leading to a healthy spirituality.

Rolheiser through this book does not give us a checklist or a systematic process which

guarantees that we will have a deeper spirituality within ourselves. Rather, the book takes us back

and helps us to analyze the origin of the spirit, and how we can keep it healthy (Rolheiser, 2014).

It shows us the stumbling blocks that make us unable to keep our connection and awareness of our

spirits alive. This book is meant to drive people into reflection, not towards correction. By making

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our spirits stronger and listening to their small voice that seeks to guide us towards what is healthy

for us, we are able to set ourselves for the true call we are destined for and the happiness that comes

with the peace realized when one leads their live fully in the Holy Spirit (Rolheiser, 2014). The

book employs reality as the lens that will enable us to see and rest in the spirit. Then we will be

able to believe the final words that Rolheiser uses when he says that “all shall be well.”

The four essentials are very important because as Rolheiser says, the area of spirituality

lacks clarity as a result of a pluralism that confuses many. This causes people to have many

questions as to what is really important in spirituality. Rolheiser also gives us a history of

spirituality that has gotten us where we are today. Today, the world is conused because there are

many types of so-called spirituality and many books to guide people on how to master those

spiritualities. It is for this reason that Rolheiser came up with the four essential pillars to guide

Christians so that tey do not get lost in the turbulent world.

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Reference

Rolheiser, R. (2014). The holy longing: The search for a Christian spirituality. New York: Image.

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