• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province

The Love that Compels

  • Online Masses
    • Passionist Online Masses and Services
  • 300th Jubilee
    • Opening Mass of the Passionist Jubilee Year
    • Video: 300th Jubilee – English
    • Video: Jubileo Pasionista – Español
    • Jubilee Icon Itinerary
    • Jubilee Resources
    • Jubilee Song
  • Pray
    • Daily Reflections
    • Prayer Request
    • Sunday Homily
    • Passionist Spirituality and Prayer
    • Stations of the Cross
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
  • Grow
    • Journey into the Mystery of Christ Crucified
    • Celebrating the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Subscribe to E-News
    • Passionist Magazine
      • Passionist Magazine, Spring 2020
    • Passionist Ministries
      • Preaching
      • Hispanic Ministry
      • Haiti
      • Parish Life
      • Earth and Spirit Center
      • Education
      • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Retreat Centers
    • Passionist Solidarity Network
    • Sacred Heart Monastery
      • History of Sacred Heart Monastery
      • A Day in the Life of Senior Passionists
      • “Pillars” of the Community
  • Join
    • Nicholas Divine, CP, Ordination to the Diaconate
    • Are You Being Called?
    • Discerning Your Call
    • Pray With Us
    • Passionist Vocation Directors
    • Lay Partnerships
  • Connect
    • Find a Passionist
    • Passionist Websites
    • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Passionist Alumni Association
      • Reunions
      • 2019 Passionist Alumni Reunion
      • Welcome
      • Letter from the Provincial
        • These Men We Call Our Brothers
      • Mission Statement
      • CrossRoads Bulletin
      • Alumni Enrollment Form
        • Alumni Survey
      • Reunion Photo Gallery
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
    • Leave a Legacy
      • Giving Matters
      • Ways to Give
      • Donor Relations
      • Testimonials
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
    • Privacy Policy Statement
  • Learn
    • Our Founder
    • History
    • The Letters of St. Paul of the Cross
    • The Diary of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Mission and Charism
    • Saints and Blesseds
    • FAQs
    • Find a Passionist
    • STUDIES IN PASSIONIST HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY
  • Safe Environments

Daily Scripture, July 25, 2013

Scripture:
2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Matthew 20:20-28

Reflection:
"Embodied Spirituality" is a buzz word floating through many contemporary spiritual circles. It arose as a corrective response to the massive and crippling personal problems caused by the rejection of the body. An embodied spirituality highlights the Christian awareness that the human body is a locus of spiritual revelation and divinization. This spirituality is biblically grounded in the mystical experience unfolded by St. Paul in the first reading:

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. (II Corinthians 4: 7-10)

An embodied spirituality regards the body as the home of the complete human being. Once we overcome the prevailing dualism between matter and spirit, the body can no longer be seen as the enemy. It is a treasured earthen vessel and a physical reality in which we live. The distinguished Jesuit theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, speaks of his conversion experience as the discovery that matter and spirit are two dimensions of one reality. Christian statements about the incarnation never allude to the "entrance" of Spirit into our bodies, but to Spirit "becoming" flesh. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh" (John 1:1, 14).

An embodied spirituality considers the body to be a source of spiritual insight. Physical sensations and impulses can be misleading.  Yet they can also be genuine sources of spiritual insight. St. Paul’s statement that "the life of Jesus" can "be manifested in our body" suggests that the body is a legitimate and reliable source of spiritual insight in its own right. In other words, the meaning of life is not merely something known intellectually by the mind, but is an experience to be felt in the depths of our flesh.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP is the director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Footer

Facebook Feed

Support the Passionists

Contact the Passionists

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province
660 Busse Highway | Park Ridge, IL 60068
Tel: 847.518.8844 | Toll-free: 800.295.9048 | Fax: 847.518.0461
Safe Environments | Board Member Portal | Copyright © 2021 | Log in