Quotes provided by Marg Schrader
in response to articles on spirituality and sexuality
God's
passion created ours. Our deep desiring is a relentless returning to that place
where all things are one. If we are afraid of our sexuality we are afraid of
God.
God is sick with love, is burning
with desire for us. Sin is drying up.
Hildegaard of Bingen
I was asked in church to choose
between my sexuality and my spirituality. I was taught to pretend I am not a
sexual being…..
a lesbian Christian
I view these two powers, my
sexuality and spirituality, as dancers. Initially both were wallflowers afraid
to dance. My spirituality was immobilised by proscriptions and fixed answers.
My sexuality was hiding in a closet ashamed of itself. When my sexuality began to emerge, my
spirituality froze in fear, then nearly ran out of the room. But then it noticed other souls dancing
gracefully and realised it was missing their grace. My spirituality wondered if
the lack of grace had something to do with the rejection of the stranger on the
other side of the room, my sexuality. Timidly one invited the other to dance.
At first they never looked at each other, out of embarrassment, shyness,
perhaps even contempt. They were lousy dancers. Then they cast furtive glances
toward each other sometimes angry or resentful, sometimes flirtatious and
seductive. Each took turns attempting to lead and control the dance, while the
other felt crowded and claustrophobic and backed away. Finally they found times
when the dance led them, and for brief moments they became perfect dancers,
full of grace, true to each other. They danced together as my soul.
Chris
Glaser in Coming out to God, 1991
So much of our sacred sexual story,
individually and as a species, has been driven underground. Shame and guilt
abound: the journey to wholeness will require a great deal of gentle dialogue,
tender care and deep healing.
Diarmuid O'Murchu in Reclaiming
Spirituality
Mike Riddell in On Courting Divine
Pleasure. Article in