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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Helen Keller and my spiritual idiolect

 by Caroline

This post begins an occasional series in which CSBN members explore their spiritual idiolects.




File:Helen KellerA.jpg
Helen Keller (photo in Public Domain).



"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."
 Helen Keller
Here’s a question I never thought about until  Connie Rossini at Catholics Spirituality Blogs Network asked, “What is your spiritual idiolect and how did you discover or develop it?”

She defined it for us:

“Everyone has an idiolect–a collection of personal speech habits that is different from anyone else’s. Have you ever thought about your spiritual idiolect? Since your soul is unique, you have a personal way of speaking to God that no one else completely shares. Today I am announcing the creation of a new blog that will help you find and fine-tune your spiritual idiolect.”

Though it took me a few days in prayer and waiting to hear from the Lord, I think I finally understand the question.

In the spiritual life, discovery is often a very slow and painful process. I don’t know why; it just is. I came to understand mine when the Lord reminded me of one of my childhood heroes.

As a young girl, the first time I saw the movie, The Miracle Worker, I remember being captivated by several things:

  • the terrible tragedy of being born able to see and hear, then struck at 19 months with a disease that left her deaf and blind
  • the desperation that set in because she was isolated and cut off from any understanding of language
  • the miracle of Annie Sullivan who finally taught her to communicate by spelling words into her hands

In a small way, like Helen, I understand what it is to feel isolated and alone, trapped in a spiritual internal darkness and silence generated by tragedies in my life over which I had no control. There’s a scene in the movie where in an attempt to teach Helen that every object has a word to identify it, Annie begins spelling the word “m-u-g”, into her hand, but in utter frustration, when Helen can’t make the connection, she throws the doll Annie had given her as a present… against the wall.

Yes, there were many years as a young Christian I felt just such exasperation, because I didn’t know how to translate the spiritual language of my heart.


Continue reading at Caroline's blog  Bell of the Wanderer

4 comments:

  1. Oh, if all you remember of Helen Keller is from the movie The Miracle Worker, you should read her spiritual biography, My Religion published in 1927.

    She says: "I am conscious of the splendour that binds all things of of earth to all things of heaven -- immurred by silence and darkness, I possess the light which shall give me vision a thousand fold when death sets me free."

    She was an extraordinary woman -- brilliant, politically active and an advocate for women's suffrage and the rights of workers -- who just happened to be blind and deaf.

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  2. Anonymous...She indeed was an extra-ordinary woman...and I'm deeply humbled by her, hence why she is one of my miracle workers. : )
    Blessings always and +

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  3. I'm having a hard time writing about my spiritual idiolect, especially after reading this post because it was so good! heh

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  4. Rebecca, I will be the first to read what you write because I'm quite sure you have experiences with God I know nothing about...and only you can share that special message.
    Write it with confidence, because only you can tell it.
    Blessings and +

    ReplyDelete

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