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The Second Vatican Council established that, “Christ summons the Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual renewal of which she always has need”. At the launch of Wellington Diocesan priest Eddie Condra’s book, “Remapping Our Souls: Spirituality for Disillusioned Catholics”, I felt that we were responding to this summons.
In a different context, today, Pope Francis calls us to, “be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody and communicate the word”. Not only does Condra’s book answer this call, but it gives us all an opportunity to do so, as individuals and as a church. The book is the product of many years of pastoral experience and spiritual reflection, and provides a powerful framework for looking inwards, thinking forwards and reaching outwards in our church and community.
Not that the book offers answers as such. Condra is clear in his introduction that this is not his intention. Indeed, having read the book, I find that it offers not answers but questions. But when the greatest danger – as identified by Pope Francis – is that, “we hold fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance”, these questions are so important. In fact, these questions are something of the substance itself, and this is the genius of Condra’s book. It affirms our questions, doubt and disillusionment as all part of the journey; they are both valid and valuable, both inevitable and necessary for growth.
The book also affirms our spiritual intuition, and teaches us to trust ourselves as we journey with God, with Life. Of course, the church has long recognised the sensus fidei, or instinct of faith, first identified in the New Testament itself (1 Jn 2:20). Yet it is always difficult to realise the practical implications of this reality, and easy to deny the genuine dialogue it requires.
Pope Francis describes dialogue as “much more than the communication of a truth”. In my opinion, Condra’s book demonstrates that truth is much more than something that can be communicated, at least in concrete terms. Instead, it is something that we experience, but something that we know by our intuition.
And it is something we experienced at the launch of this book, celebrated with readings, speeches, songs and a blessing, all of which embodied the searching and authentic spirituality that characterises the book itself, and reflects Condra’s life of service as a companion and counselor to the pilgrim people, often those on the peripheries.
This inspires my confidence in our spiritual intuition, as individuals and as a church, and it empowers me to ask and seek to answer the questions that lie at the very depths of our spirituality. No doubt, this is a painful process but, as Condra articulates, this is the pathway to conversion.
Copies of “Remapping Our Souls: Spirituality for Disillusioned Catholics” are available from Fr Eddie Condra. Email: tepunatapu@gmail.com
- Daniel Kleinsman graduated in Law from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. He is currently doing postgraduate study at Victoria University.
- Image: The Wireless
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