If I were to try to state the main goal of the spiritual-religious life briefly (fool’s errand though that might be), what I would start with is this: the centrality of consciousness. Let’s consider some specifics of what that can mean in practical life. …

While talking recently with a young woman entering the ministry, I heard her speak several times about her “spiritual practice.” I’ve been thinking quite a bit about that word “practice” that she used. And today I’m pondering an analogy between the spiritual life and the world of athletes. Despite their surface differences, both spirituality and sports have one important element in common: the necessity of practice. …

Many people these days are asking a lot of questions about how personal spirituality relates to established religion. For those of us involved in an ongoing faith tradition, one core insight is this: no specific religion, or the doctrines it espouses, must ever become objects of faith or belief in and of themselves. Religion is much better seen as a valuable resource than as a binding authority. …

The late sociologist Robert Bellah, a keen student of religion, once said that when it comes to social policy, “love is not a popular idea” among Americans. One place we see this is in the repeated public support given to America’s long list of wars since WW II (including this country’s attack against Iraq in 1991, in the aftermath of which this essay was originally written). Sadly, “sending in the Marines” is almost always highly popular within our population. …

Today I’m remembering a talk I gave on spiritual practice at a conference. Afterwards, someone asked to talk with me about prayer, and said poignantly, “I still pray … but is anyone really there to hear it”? Her words reminded me of a phrase I hear a lot in theological circles: the “silence of God” in our time. Has the Divine actually gone silent? My personal experience says “no.” But for many moderns, the answer is clearly “yes.” …

Last Tuesday, I drove my seventeen-year-old daughter, Emma, to start her junior year at boarding school (St. Paul’s, in Concord, New Hampshire). Although she’ll always be my child, she seems suddenly, astonishingly, much more young woman than child. …

In the Gospels, Jesus often says, “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” But if there is one thing many of us clearly don’t want to hear about, it is the severity of the global crisis of the environment, especially as it is appearing in the changes taking place in our climate. …

As this watershed year of 2001 nears its end, what next? Despite these harsh times, the turning of one year to the next can remind us of new beginnings, and of the opportunities they bring for shaping a better future. As our spiritual traditions remind us in their varying ways, there is a “starting now” side of life that is ever at hand, if and as we proactively seek and find it. …