«From devotions to nonsense, God delivers us»
St. Teresa of Avila expressed herself with this forcefulness to raise the seriousness of spirituality, structured by theology. Undoubtedly, the saints continue to be the luminaries who remind us of the urgency of spirituality as a path to holiness.
Christian spirituality is how the baptized, guided by the Holy Spirit, live their relationship with the Trinity, structuring their life in faith according to their state vocation and charismas, for the sake of holiness. It has its source and summit in the liturgy, especially in the celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. It develops communally in the Church and concretely in the portion of the People of God where we live. It is by its very nature combative: it fights for justice, against sin and the father of sin, both in its personal and institutional dimension in the structures of sin. In short, it is a path of sanctification towards transcendence (adoration of God), towards the interior (conversion), and others (commandment of love – Kingdom of God).
The importance of a serious approach to spirituality for Christians in this century is fundamental. The reason is that the various crises that the Church is going through at present have a common denominator: a crisis of faith and solidarity-communion; a crisis that has perverted how we believe in God. That is why it is more and more frequent to hear Christian voices saying: «God yes, Church no»; «I believe in God, but I do not practice any religion» or even «I am a Christian, but I do not like politics». All these are symptoms of how postmodern culture and the lukewarmness of evangelization have perverted Christian identity, resulting in a multitude of spiritualisms, pseudo-religious approaches, and irresponsibility with the incarnation of the Christian faith in the various temporal spheres, without realizing that every political error is a theological error.
The aim of this issue of the magazine is informative and performative, offering an analysis of the causes that have led to the perversion of Christian spirituality, together with the exposition of the foundations that structure an authentic spirituality, as proposed by the Catholic Church in its long tradition. All this is a response to the hard times we are going through.
EDITORIAL ID Y EVANGELIZAD 136 «Keys to Christian spirituality in this neopagan era»