Theology 12 Catholic Spirituality

Mr. Phillips

Some Definitions and Descriptions of Christian and/or Catholic Spirituality

1. “[Spirituality is] an itinerary for growth in our friendship with Christ.”

John Bartunek, “What is the essence of Catholic Spirituality?” Posted on www.spiritualdirection.com on
August 29, 2011; accessed on August 19, 2014.

2. “Christian spirituality is the daily, communal, lived expression of one’s ultimate beliefs,
characterized by openness to the self-transcending love of God, self, neighbor, and
world through Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Elizabeth Dreyer, “Christian Spirituality,” The Harper/Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, ed. Richard
McBrien (San Francisco: Harper/Collins, 1995).

3. “Christian spirituality is the life in the Holy Spirit who incorporates the Christian into the
Body of Jesus Christ, through whom the Christian has access to God the Creator in a life
of faith, hope, love and service.”
Richard McBrien, Catholicism, new edition (San Francisco: Harper/Collins, 1994) 1058.

4. “[Christian spirituality is] a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the
sake of others.”
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove: IVP
Press, 1993) 15.

5. “Spirituality refers to the unfolding, day by day, of the fundamental decision to become
or to remain a Christian which we make at baptism, repeat at confirmation, and renew
each time we receive the eucharist …”
William Reiser, Looking for a God to Pray To: Christian Spirituality in Transition (New York: Paulist, 1994) 2.

6. “Spirituality refers to the experience of constantly striving to integrate one’s life in

terms not of isolation and self-absorption but of self-transcendence toward the ultimate
value one perceives.”
Sandra Schneiders, “Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners? Horizons (Villanova) 13/2
(1986):266.

7. “Catholic spirituality is a connectedness to the central beliefs and core values of Catholic
Christianity and a desire to live in accord with those beliefs and values.”
Eric the Simple, Random Thoughts of a Spiritual Moron (more on that later).