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Integral Spirituality

I shall go quickly through my own formation because spirituality is personal not theoretical. And theory is not separated from practice. Spirituality is not a reflection of life; it is a sensitivity of life.

When I came back, I taught Philosophy at Ateneo. I was in close contact with farmers. But my experience with La Tondena strikers was a very moving one. I saw sisters hanging in the bus. During this time I still had hang - ups on violence. But confronted with the reality during the strike, it was hard to theologize.

I was formed in a Benedictine type of community life with accent on the spiritual and prayerful life. It was a time of learning the faith. But even in this one should perceive that essentials are different from forms. One should be conscious of developing fidelity to petty matters. At the core, you have the Christian message but one should see also what develops around the periphery. For here a hierarchy of values develops. Then the person begins to relativize. In my spiritual formation, I had to undergo the realization that God is bigger, much bigger than what we and the Church had inculcated in our minds. God is not narrow; He is not a policeman.

Based on the presupposition of integral evangelization, I would like to share the characteristics of integral spirituality as my group has experienced it. First, that it is not based on metaphysical principles nor on dogma but on Biblical and historical experience. Second, that, it is not legalistic and materialistic, neither is it suffocating, confining but open to the radically new. Life of faith is real. Here there are no absolutes-only God is absolute. Faith is not so much a summary but openness. Faith lives in the dark and does not see when he falls. It is surrender, like parachute jumping. Religiosity, on the other hand, kills faith. It makes one cling to religion and removes the focus on God. Third, spirituality is not individualistic. It transcends personalism versus openness and concern for persons. Evangelistic fads are very attractive because they are emotional and not lasting. Groups like Campus Crusade for Christ and Opus Dei are trying to fill a vacuum that has been there. The CIA takes this opportunity and funds all these charismatic movements as in Latin America, which emphasized individualistic salvation and peace, meaning the absence of conflict. Spirituality is never being at ease or at peace. Prophets always landed in the scaffold. Finally, spirituality is not ritualistic, but a celebration of life in victory and in the defeats of the peoples' struggles. An example was the mobilization of the people to City Hall during May 1 celebration. The offertory later was 2 pails of water.

Spirituality presupposes inner freedom. And a person acts although he / she does not have complete inner freedom. For it is in acting that one grows not by theory. Even people in the movement have psychological hang-ups.

We begin with Christ as one who was fully liberated, Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. And we continue to encounter Christ in the material, in people and the law. Christ was no anarchist, but He saw the law in perspective as in serving the good of the people.

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To have inner freedom is to be free from fear, bitterness, resentment, idols and the tyranny of vested interests. Fear is a paralyzed and enslaving force. To be freed from fear is not to have fear. One should see thing as reasonable or being unreasonable. For example, my school is involved in protests and conscientizing cause. Threat is to lose school. That is unreasonable. Alternative is for me to be hauled to Crame. That is more reasonable . How do we get inner freedom? First, is self-knowledge. We have to know ourselves. We have false self-images. We outgrow them when we bare ourselves before others. Second, is self-acceptance. We are not to be alone by ourselves. For other people have to accept us, too. This is the spirit of communality. Inner freedom is progressive and regressive. It is a process. When we have this as a minimum, then we could engage in peoples' movements.