Tallman: Help your faith thrive in 2025

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Here are some ideas to nurture your faith in 2025.

Read: Many faithful spiritual teachers can help with this: Ronald Rolheiser, Diarmuid O’Murchu, Ilia Delio, Elizabeth Johnson, Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, Peter Enns, Frederick Buechner, Brian McLaren, and Eugene Peterson. Reading them can greatly expand one’s mind.

Retreat: Five-day silent retreats are good for the soul.

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Travel: Pilgrimages are a hands-on way to learn about God’s providence. Travel to St. Peter’s Basilica, Westminster Abbey, Assisi, Jerusalem, Lourdes, Medjugorje, and the Camino in northern Spain can be arduous but very rewarding.

A favorite pilgrimage of mine was to see The Shroud of Turin, the burial cloth in which Jesus of Nazareth was wrapped after his crucifixion. The museum convinced me the shroud is authentic. The image burnt into it is the only one in the world that shows what Christ actually looked like. It is housed in the Cathedral of John the Baptist in Turin, Italy.

Find your way: The cross and resurrection of Christ are very important, but they are not all-encompassing. There is a broader theology called “creation spirituality” that can include and go beyond the fall and redemption of humanity. Creation spirituality includes four “vias” or “ways.” The Via Positiva, or Positive Way, starts where the Bible starts: the whole creation is “very good.” The Via Negativa, or Negative Way, can include the crucifixions we all go through, and the Via Creativa, or Creative Way, can include our resurrections, or the resilience we can experience after family conflict, failure, divorce, loss, accident, or death of a loved one. The Via Transformativa, or Transformative Way, is when we use hard-earned wisdom to reach out to serve and seek justice for others.

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Advocate: There are two basic models of “church:” the church versus non-believers, or the church versus society treating people like non-persons. People often treated as non-persons include the homeless, poor, handicapped, and trans gender. “Churches need both models,” a United Church minister said to me, “otherwise we would just become another Rotary Club.”

Committed sexual relationship: Sex is spiritual in its foundation. In the biblical Song of Solomon, the bride constantly searches for “him whom my soul loves.” That is where sex begins, in the soul, in the longing to be united body, mind, heart, and soul with another human being. To be fully united sexually requires a commitment to work through all the challenges every couple in a serious relationship goes through. Being committed can be hard, but it is worth it. However, if there is severe and prolonged abuse or neglect, you should get out.

Community: Small groups, in which you freely share the writings of spiritual teachers, can be a helpful addition to the institutional church. Small prayer, Bible study, meditation, or book groups can significantly influence a person’s spiritual life. God’s grace can be mediated through others whether ordained or not. Jesus can speak to us through church, scripture, or nature. Some consider nature to be the first Bible. The grace and love of God is all around us. Forest-bathing or desert-bathing (being alone in the woods or desert) can be spiritually renewing.

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Acceptance: As a rabbi said, “There is more good than evil in the world, but not by much.” “Life is messy” is a good motto for 2025. This allows us, on the one hand, to avoid being Pollyannish, ignore the evil in the world, and naively think all is roses. On the other hand, it allows us to see all the good in the world and not fall into cynicism about life. Life is hard but foundationally good. It is challenging but worth living.

Be fearless: Finally, God lives within everyone, including you. So, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Therefore, there is nothing to be afraid of.

Hopefully, we will fully realize the implications of all these teachings throughout 2025.

Bruce Tallman is a spiritual director and educator of adults in religion. brucetallman.com

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