Thoughts Concerning Spirituality and Spiritual Wellness

From the Desk of Sister Kateri Theriault

Spirituality has to do with one’s inner core; that deepest inside of themselves where someone greater than themselves speaks to their heart; where their sense of right and wrong is known; where they are in right relationship with themselves and all of creation around them. It is actually the essence of who one is. It has not so much to do with practicing a formal religion, though one’s formal religion will affect one’s spirituality, as it does with knowing there is a higher being, God, and respecting that higher being and living in right relationship with all created things – people and all creation because they are a reflection of that God.

Spiritual wellness means that I live according to that deepest part of myself that acknowledges a higher being and being in right relationship. The most simplistic definition is the Golden Rule, but that’s only the beginning. It’s going beyond that in terms of how I treat myself and others: how I think and talk about them; how I treat them... It implies having a comfort with and paying deliberate attention to one's own spiritual growth.