Part 3: Inner Piece

We’ve Got Spirit, Yes We Do!

The third corner of your puzzle is spirituality.  Spirituality is learning how the Spirit stirs in each of us—in our prayers, in our hopes, in our fears, in the peaks and the pits of our lives.  We are not always aware of our spirituality, though it is always there.  It is a unique piece in your puzzle in that it is both within you and outside of you.

Identify Your Spirit

Your spirit is what is unique about you.  Use the following questionnaire to identify the character of your spirit.  Close your eyes for a few moments and try to imagine your spirit.  Try to think of your spirit by stepping outside yourself and looking inward. Pay attention to colors, shapes, images and sounds that enter your mind.  Let your mind’s eye seek out the personality of your spirit.

Describe your spirit

Favorite Food:
Favorite Color:
Favorite Sport:
Favorite Music/Song:
Favorite Book:
Favorite Subject:
Clothing Style:
Pets:
Hobbies:
Favorite Animal:
Favorite Food:
Dream Job:
Biggest Hope:
Worst Fear:
Happiest Sound:
Saddest Moment:

Complete these sentences…
My spirit is like…
I used to be _____________, but now I’m _______________.
My spirit brings me closer to God when…

My Spiritual Experience

Reflect on a spiritual experience you have had in your life.  Think of an experience that you often remember and reflect on, or an experience that you know changed you—a move, a divorce, a death, a challenge.

What was your life like before?

What was your life like after?

What did you lose?

What did you gain?

How did the experience affect your direction in life?

Do you like the direction in which you’re going?

How Do You Pray?

Prayer actually is more usual than you realize.  At four in the morning every day, a young man bikes through the woods to a clearing overlooking a waterfall to watch the sunrise.  A varsity basketball player’s mind enters a place of complete concentration amidst the chaos and rush of the game around her.  Your grandmother kneels with a rosary in the church pew, as she has every day for the last 40 years.  A father whispers “God, please help my daughter,” over and over as he sits outside the burn unit in a hospital.

Prayer is a dialogue.  It can be between you and God, you and a deceased relative, or you and yourself.  There are thousands upon thousands of ways people pray.  How have you prayed in the following ways?

•    What experience of yourself alive and powerful or of recognizing God loves you have you experienced?
•    When have you felt amazed at beauty in nature?  When have you experienced feelings of anger or disgust at ruin in nature?
•    In what experiences have you found the Holy Spirit?

Closing Prayer

Today, close the retreat with your own prayer.  It can be for or about anything—a prayer of thanks, a prayer for someone else, a moment of silence, a walk alone, listening to your favorite song, or anything else.  The only restriction is that it comes directly from you, praying in the way that only you can connect with your spirituality.

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