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The Fruits of the Spirit

Dedicated to James Bardwell.

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:6

Can one be a Christian on his own terms? Can one be a Catholic a la carte? The answer to both questions according to the church ( churches) will most definitely be a resounding no. And the church with its esteemed theologians, solid history and powerful infrastructure, holds the weight of this argument in its favour. Christianity is the church. There is no salvation  outside of the church and the church administers the Sacraments. When I say church I don't only mean the Roman Catholic Church or any of the other Apostolic churches, I also mean all the Protestant ones in all their subdivisions, from the Anglican ones to the evangelical ones where one has to register as a member. All these churches, despite their differences, will coincide when it comes to the necessity of the church, of the ekklesia, the community and a leader ( be it a priest, a pastor or an elder) in order for Christian faith to be practiced. 

There are non-denominational Christians out there, but they often belong to non denominational churches. 
The problem with denominations and different churches is the existence of confessional mortgages one must endure, for everyone is a heretic for someone else. Dogma and the external appearance of being a Christian takes precedence over the essence of the faith. The focus then becomes the acquisition of self realization through a set of dogmas and practices which exist in opposition with those of other denominations/churches. I can only understand Christianity in the context of God's love, love being the most powerful energy in the world. Christ's message of love your neighbour, turn the other cheek and forgive seventy times seven is what makes him revolutionary in a time when gods could be as cruel as the humans who venerated them. Christ's message of compassion and equality that upset so much the Sanedrin, had the same power than Gautama's message of compassion in defiance of the ruling Brahmin class of his time.

But everyone is entitled to his or her version and understanding of Christ. The problem is that the fundamentalists don't really appreciate any other version. 
Mystics are associated predominantly with the Roman Catholic Church. These were incredibly attuned spiritual people who had long mastered the dogmas of the church and who through ascetic practices were able to reach the third of the mystic stages, the unitive stage akin to theosis in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. 
Many of these mystics ended up on the wrong side of the church and suffered because of this. They saw the bigger picture. They understood that God is bigger than the church and larger than any theological thesis. They understood the mystery that God is. 

Fasting, living like an ascetic and spending one's life in a cell or cave praying is a feat that only a few can pursue. These are monks predominantly and for us living in the world, a monastic life is neither possible or even desirable. But we can follow our own practice. We can set a time every day to pray, to meditate, to look inwards so that we can better look outwards. 

To be a good Christian, a good Muslim, Buddhist, humanist etc the most important thing is to first be a good human. 


Meditation is the most important spiritual practice we can follow. When we meditate, to quote the ancient Orthodox prayer, "we Sanctify our souls, hallow our bodies, correct our thoughts and cleanse our minds".

Meditation allows us to develop the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is no hokus pokus: Meditation makes us let go. It stops our circular thinking. It soothes our anxious mind, emptying it of superfluous sense impressions and countless thoughts. No wonder that Meditation shares the same prefix as medicine.

Meditation allows us to make small but significant discoveries about ourselves and the world we live in. We don't need to belong to a denomination. We don't need to sucribe wholesale to dogmas and social cultural baggage. The church- any church- has many valuable lessons and practices for us. But to condense the whole of human wisdom and truth to a two thousand year institution is simply absurd. Meditation can be  complementary to church going and traditional Christian practice. The point is that all spiritual journeys, all metanoia starts with the self, with one's own experience and desire to be a better human being.
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