Union

Ever been to Sedona Arizona? It's beautiful. And very spiritual, full of vortexes. The vortexes of Sedona are named because they are believed to be spiritual locations where the energy is right to facilitate prayer, mediation and healing. Vortex sites are believed to be locations having energy flow that exists on multiple dimensions. The energy of the vortexes interacts with a person’s inner self.

Let me illustrate something...

Notice the layout of a church. At Ascension the altar is in the center. And in our window – Jesus in the center again (In religious art you don’t find Jesus tucked into a corner, small and out of the way – he is always prominent). And we mark time - 2012 - by the coming of Christ into the world.

Very important this. The divine entering the mundane, the common, the ordinary. Does that mean that Bethlehem is a spiritual center, an inherently spiritual place? Like Sedona?

No, not really. It is a historical place, and significant. But no more spiritual than anywhere else. Why would anyone think otherwise? Well, there is a false dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. A much more Christian understanding of the great divide is good or evil for example.

So then, how are we to understand spirituality in a world that throws the word around a lot, but doesn't usually define it?

It is easier to say what it is not:
Spiritual is not anti-physical or anti-world. It's not vague, slippery or elusive. And it is not dependent upon us.
True Spirituality is very earthy, not otherworldly, which is contrary to the way many people think about it…