Worship

This blog is hard for me to articulate.... I shall try my best.

As a spiritual practitioner, I participate in a lot of rituals. INVARIBLY.... I see people who are just going through the motions thinking that spirits will reward their effort. They won't. You cannot treat your spiritual practice like going to the bathroom and expect a reward. You literally have to put your mind, body and spirit in your workings. That is the nature of worship.

I was educated by diocese of my hometown. i.e. Catholic school. I have never been Catholic. We were required to take religion.... every day. I don't people really understand what it means to attend a religious school if they never have. It's not just plaid uniforms. You take religious classes that you must pass or get left back. You get left back because there is no summer school for religion. It costs money and the brass (nuns/priests/staff) can whoop your ass.

My 6th grade teacher was a former nun. Her husband was a former priest. There's a story there. I was just too young to notice. Oh well! It was important to her that we do the rosary daily and when we went to mass, we had to behave. She would grade us on how devout we behaved during the religious rituals. She explained that it wasn't just important to be quiet and go through the motions but to really engage with God. We asked how to do that. She said we had to feel it and move accordingly. She chastised us if we didn't hold the rosary beads appropriately. Also, if we didn't say the prayers with conviction. At age 12, I didn't understand the significance, but I wanted good grades, so I faked it.

The devotion carried over to the religion I actually was baptized in. When I attended church, I made sure that my body and form appeared devoted. Even the pastor and older church ladies commented to my mother about it. Acting like I was devoted, opened a door for my spirits to give me messages. Faking might be the wrong term but it's what I got. Eventually I understood what my 6th grade teacher was trying to teach me. You have to put yourself into a respectful zone in order for spirits to contact you. Just going through the motions doesn't open you up enough to actually FEEL the spirit moving. You have to let spirits know that you're available. This is why people do workings/rituals and say they don't feel anything. I'm not saying folks are feeling things and don't know it. But folks are not putting themselves in a position for interaction.

Worshipping is not just going through the motions. It's not just singing, bowing your head to pray, reciting odu, reading the Bible, killing animals or any other ACTIONS that you do. It's making yourself available for intercession with the spirits.

Deuces!