Spirituality Classroom Blog
Reverence the Integrity of Who You Are in Christ
How often do you think of the word “reverence?” When you do think of it, what is it in reference to? A lot of people I know would answer that "reverence" refers to the sensation they feel when they worship God, or when they know they are in His presence.
I would agree. However, what if I would tell you that another way to think about the word “reverence,” is this: we are to “Reverence the integrity of Self.” What do you suppose that might mean? The phrase comes from the writings of a monk of the Episcopal Order of the Holy Cross. Fr. Bonnell Spencer, in an attempt to define what monks mean by taking a vow of obedience, wrote that it means to “Reverence the integrity of Self.”
When I first read that, I thought, “How can reverencing myself be the same thing as obeying God? Then I read on. Clarification happened: Fr. Spencer said that when we seek to reverence in every way...