You, spirit of my spirit,
spirits of our souls,
I thank you, we are grateful to you,
because in the midst of all uncertainty,
in the mist of wonder and wander,
we see rays of growth, love and beauty.
Help us in front of the spirits
of social competition and randomness,
the spirits of evil, hatred and malice.
Give us eyes to see good possibilities,
genius to be creative,
greatness to give space,
love and friendship to give each other
ourselves and the best of humanity.
Let the world and us grow
and become better and better, infinitely better,
open to listening,
experienced in productive self criticism,
for improvement of perspectives,
to breath life in the diversity of existences,
to make everyday’s dying
one more chance for growth,
humility and unimaginable hoping,
rather than just sadness and rage.
Be everything for better
in the braid of our I’s.
Amen
About Spiritual Study
The website Spiritual Study is devoted primarily to the study of spirituality as such; secondarily there is space for particular spiritualities as well. As such, Spiritual Study includes all spiritualities and people, believers and non-believers. Spiritual Study is study of spirituality involving not only our mind and intelligence, but our whole life, emotions, body, experiences: it is cultivation of a spiritual experience, indirect connections, awareness of our self. This website is a sharing place, aimed to be the highest quality comprehensive portal to spirituality, with space for friendship and inexpert people as well; you can use any part of it, and especially the course, as an instrument for meditation, nourishment, the pleasure of practicing this art, the art of Spiritual Study.
Here you can find:
- a complete Course of Spirituality for all levels, from absolutely beginners with no ideas about spirituality to the highest, most advanced, levels
- a blog with videos, progressively integrated in the Course of Spirituality
- the most complete database, continuously updated, of best resources (books and articles, journals and magazines, websites and webpages, people, groups, videos) for your research about spirituality
- an online discussion forum where you can express and share yourself, your thoughts, questions, experience; you can also use the forum to get or give, depending on your competence or needs, counselling and help, either publicly or privately.
The logo
The logo of the website is a piano with a score, meaning that we interpret and play life like a musician interprets and plays a music score. I like the image of those who play a pipe organ in a monastery, often in a soft, dark light, that makes me think of the secret of the soul, where our inner experiences happen. We can also think of spirituality as “playing us”, that is, inspiring us, our life, decisions and creativity, the same way the organ player is, in a sense, played by the music they are playing. You can see in this video an example of what I am talking about:
Angelo Cannata (Modica, 19 February 1964) is a researcher in spirituality and a biblical scholar. He is keen on Gianni Vattimo’s “weak thought”. In 1991 he obtained a degree in Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. Until 2013 he divided his commitments between teaching the Sacred Scripture in some theological institutions and the parish ministry. In 2013 he published the book Walking, available for free in this website, where his thought is presented; the book is an introduction to philosophy aimed to highlight an anti-metaphysical perspective and as a life instrument. The same year he left priesthood, then the Catholic faith and finally his faith in God. These choices have been caused by a perception of increasingly clear incompatibility between anti-metaphysics and dogmatism of the Church first, critical thinking and the problem of theodicy later. He does not find possible to profess a faith in a God who is by definition good and omnipotent, and at the same time to maintain a living memory of his absence in front of evil in the world.