A Spirituality to “Go Beyond” – Transcendent Spirituality
An important aspect of the spirituality presented in this toolkit is that it helps you “go beyond” what you normally experience, opening yourself up to a sacred world that gives people meaning and purpose in their lives.
The following is a description of how spirituality helps adults to transcend and “go beyond”:
From immediate to definitive
A spirituality of going beyond - transcendent - is not satisfied with the immediate, but seeks to embrace the definitive. If, for example, we look at situations where adults are resorting to violence against children, it is almost always because they are caught in the immediate, here and now. In many cases, it is this concern with the immediate that leads the adult to resort to physical, verbal and emotional violence. Punishing children shows a concern for the immediate, a desire to quiet a child as an immediate desire, without asking what that punishment will mean for that child in the long run.
Many adults live in stressful conditions due to extreme poverty, displacement, family difficulties, relationships, food insecurity, family and public health crises, violence in the community or at home, resulting in heightened stress that inhibits their ability to care and respond. with sensitivity to the needs of their children, particularly at times when children need protection and care most. Parents and caregivers in these situations need community support to address the multidimensional challenges they are exposed to and to strengthen their resilience and capacities to support the healthy and stable development of their children.
Not satisfied with the answers
To go further is to question. Most people want a quick answer. The more questions people ask, the more movement beyond they get. We are sometimes so sure we have the answer that we fail to ask the question. Spiritual posture cannot be satisfied with answers alone. We must allow children to ask.
In the early years, children are always asking “Why?”; they see, they hear, they touch, they experience and ask, “Why?” It is this curiosity of children that creates the basis for their spirituality.
In a religious context, even if children are expected to recite and memorize holy scriptures, they must also be empowered to understand and comprehend what they are memorizing so that it has meaning and relevance and is not just routine learning.
Don't limit yourself
Instead, focus on possibilities. It is possible for people to live and work together for the good of the community.
The call to love others is a challenge to go beyond, to try to live what seems to be a contradiction. Is it possible to love an enemy? In asking whether this is realistic, we open ourselves to the very possibility.
Encouraging children to empathize with others, imagining possibilities and ways to go beyond boundaries - mental or external/structural - designed to separate people based on religion, age, culture, gender or any other construct, will help them to enhance your spirituality.
| Spirituality is the call to go beyond where you are - from the immediate to the definitive, from answers to questions, from limits to possibilities. Developing spirituality will certainly contribute to the movement to build a world where children are protected and empowered to thrive and fully develop. |
- e-Capacitação
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- Facilitadores em e-Espiritualidade
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- 3ª Sessão-Módulo 1
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- A Spirituality to “go beyond”
- e-Capacitação
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- e-Spirituality in childhood
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- Spirituality in childhood
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- A Spirituality to “go beyond”