Life is full of rituals. We develop our life around a set of rites or 'habits' that become an expression of ourselves. From the very small things that give meaning to our life like starting our day with a fresh cup of coffee or the way we greet the people, rituals are everywhere If we were to stop and see ourselves throughout the day, we would see that our life is full of them.
Is part of the human condition to developed a way to give meaning to our life and at the same time provide understanding to it. Anthropologists and sociologists referred to them as cultural or social behavior. It would be chaotic to live in a society were social norms would not be established for example and in the same way, it would be impossible to live a life without a set of rituals that expresses your personality or self. From waving your hand to express 'hello' to frowning to express 'discontent,' these symbols are expressed in rituals to provide meaning to our life.
In the same way, the spiritual world provides a set of symbols and rituals seeking to understand and give meaning to this reality. It is to my amazement the richness in diversity and unity within the Catholic Church when it comes to rituals. When young people ask me why is it important to go to mass or celebrate the sacraments as part of living a Christian life, instead of providing a profound and complicated theological or historical explanation of the mass, I often referred to the importance of rituals in our life and the meaning they provide to it. The mass and sacraments provide for our very own Catholic identity--worldwide. In the same way, our personal rites of prayer are very diverse and unique. These are often referred as 'schools of prayer' or types of spirituality. The way we 'perform' prayer can be so vast that coming to know how someone understands and communicates with God is a personal and unique affair. I tell them to let their imagination fly when it comes to developing spiritual rituals. Journaling and reading the sacred scriptures, eating cake and reciting the rosary, writing poetry and kneeling at church--they all can become profound expressions of communication with God. They can all become rituals of prayer.
While it is important to mention that we are not to reduced our sacramentality and rites to a cultural set of meaning that gives a certain group a specific identity, it helps us understand why we express our faith the way we do. However, we know the mass and sacraments not only give us our Catholic identity but truly professes and expresses a reality. In other words, in contrast to cultural habits, we do not give the sacraments meaning but rather it is the sacraments and mass that define us. We engage in these habits to be transformed by them. We enter into a reality that gives us meaning, and not the other way around.
As a missioner, I find that everything is a ritual. From the way we referred to God, the way we position ourselves in prayer, the chants we sing and prayers we recite to the way we eat, the way we communicate with each other, the things we express and hold important for us, the values we hold significant, and activities we engage in, these are all expressions of ourselves--they are all rituals and changed from culture to culture and from individual to individual. Culturally and individually, we have developed rites for ourselves that we hold very important to our life--again, because they give us meaning. Their sacredness does not depend on its relation to God or Church.
Rituals are everywhere. In fact, every time we find ourselves misunderstood or unable to comprehend another person is likely because we are not familiar with the rituals being expressed. The ability to engage in this art of developing a sensibility to the sacredness of another one is a profound reality of the missionary spirit.
