Spiritual awakening happens in many ways. As many ways in fact, as there are people who have and continue to journey along this spiritual path we call life. We may have moments of sudden awareness where things seen clearer than they have been before. On the other hand we may journey for long periods of time and never experience such a moment. We can drink from both the cup of salvation and the cups of tears. We can experience joy and a sense of connectedness or we can experience sadness and disconnect. We can feel like a spiritual loner, or we might feel we are on the broad highway with many others.
The practices that support our journey are personal and unique as well. We may find spiritual meaning and growth in writing or reading about our spiritual journey. We may find meaning in the sacraments and prayer and worship. We may feel connected to God outdoors. Maybe we discover that we hear God most clearly in dreams or maybe in silence. All of it is part of the journey that leads to our truth. And over time this spiritual experience of life begins to set the conditions for the larger understanding of a spiritual awakening. Whatever it is for each of us it is ongoing, and it is the work of a lifetime.
The three Magi were astronomers. They found spiritual meaning in looking into the sky and charting the movement of the stars. Who knows how long they had been attentive to the spiritual practice of stargazing before they experienced the moment that would change them forever – the moment they found the star they would follow to their epiphany. It is no surprise that these were the same type of people who would listen closely to their dreams, and in doing so, they averted sure disaster for the Anointed One.
The Magi listened to how God was manifesting truth to them. Through the stars, through their dreams. Through their intuition. Within the listening came wisdom. It brought them to the cave and the feeding trough with the Divine Child and the spiritual awakening of the world.
I like that there seemed to be a stillness in the moment. A moment at a loss for words, when nothing can be said, only beheld in silence. A spiritual awakening can be like that. After the long journey, it comes in a simple, quiet and profound moment of truth. It is then that you continue on, yet in a different way.
Where is your North Star? Find it. Follow it. Trust your intuition. It just might lead you to a moment that changes everything.