Celebrating the Disciplines Together

Spiritual discipline as a corporate event has become an endangered species.  The disciplines have been relegated to the domain of the individual.  I believe our overvalued sense of individualistic self-actualization has wiped out most of the community aspects of American life.  We are so into the self that we have forgotten about the importance of the gathering of ourselves.  This impact has been profoundly detrimental to the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Fasting as an individual practice has disappeared from many corners of our society because we have lost the corporate dynamics that allow for learning across the generations.  Pressing the disciplines into the realm of the individual has moved these practices into the underground recesses of the person.  The who, what, when, why, how questions no longer have a public forum in which to be uttered.  As such, fasting has now been adopted and secularized by a populace that understands little about the spiritual dynamics of this marvelous discipline.

I find it interesting that this discipline has such a long history of corporate practice.  Most recognized religious groups understand the value of fasting.  Both Jews and Christians have had community practices that pressed for regular weekly fasting.  Within the Christian spectrum today, one would have a difficult time finding any group practicing a weekly fast.  I find this amazing and saddening.  I need to do something about this.  Well, perhaps that is what this blog is all about.  Maybe, just maybe.