{"id":3618,"date":"2013-03-08T16:45:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T00:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2013-08-26T17:15:32","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T00:15:32","slug":"spiritual-maturity-needs-spizzerinctum-and-sprezzatura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/spiritual-maturity-needs-spizzerinctum-and-sprezzatura\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual maturity needs \u201cspizzerinctum\u201d and \u201csprezzatura\u201d!"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\np.padding {padding-left:.5cm;}\n--><\/style>\n<p><em>Nurturing Elders and Others<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Spiritual maturity needs \u201cspizzerinctum\u201d and \u201csprezzatura\u201d!<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>By the Rev. Paul Graves<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In his 2011 book \u201cA Lever and A Place to Stand\u201d, Richard Rohr offers this profound challenge to older adults:<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are now saying that the neural grooves that you prefer and use become ingrained patterns in the brain. If we cease thinking alternatively, then alternative ways of thinking die. And so the neural grooves that you prefer to use take over by the time you are in your forties and fifties. And that is probably why a lot of old people are not very interesting: they have four or five remaining neural grooves, and you know what they are going to say before they say it. There is no originality and no freshness and no immediacy of response, and therefore there is no seeing.<br \/>\n<!--more Read more from Paul--><br \/>\n\u201cOuch!\u201d That was my first inner response when I read Rohr\u2019s words some months ago. \u201cOuch\u201d is still my response as I reread this paragraph. We\u2019ve been \u201cfound out\u201d by one of our aging peers. When we settle into whatever \u201cretirement\u201d means to us, it is too easy to turn off our brains and our spirits.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re tempted to just coast along, letting someone else do the tough work of living and staying vital. \u201cWe\u2019ve done our part\u201d &#8212; maybe referring to activity in the church or community or even in our own families. That\u2019s a decision that gives into the inevitability of death, so why fight it!<\/p>\n<p>On the same page of the above quote, Rohr champions the spiritual disciplines of meditation and contemplation (the book\u2019s main purpose). \u201cWith meditation or contemplation, I think we have every likelihood of producing actual elders for the next generation and for the church, and not just elderly people\u201d. (p. 103)<\/p>\n<p>When Bishop Cal McConnell was our episcopal leader in the early \u201890\u2019s, he introduced a word new to many of us: \u201cSPIZZERINCTUM.\u201d I love the sounds of words, particularly those words have an underlying significance to their silly sounds. \u201cSpizzerinctum\u201d is one of those words.<\/p>\n<p>So is SPREZZATURA. Put your own faux Italian accent into it and see how fun it is to say! But it too has a significant meaning beyond its fun pronunciation. Both \u201cspizzerinctum\u201d and \u201csprezzatura\u201d are found in the life of Jesus and, I trust, in the lives of those who try to follow Jesus most faithfully.<\/p>\n<p>I came upon spizzerinctum and sprezzatura in Leonard Sweet\u2019s over-the-top book \u201cThe Gospel According to Starbucks\u201d. He pushes his readers to fully participate in what God is doing in this world. To illustrate that participation, he interprets these two wonderful, crazy-sounding words.<\/p>\n<p>Sweet describes SPIZZERINCTUM as \u201cHoly Boldness\u201d. It is a word from Appalachian culture. Its closest synonym may be \u201cchutzpah\u201d (or \u201choly boldness\u201d). Then he uses a number of Gospel stories to illustrate Jesus\u2019 spizzerinctum. Jesus responded to the spontaneity of whatever \u201cinterrupted\u201d his day with what I still call God\u2019s Radical Hospitality.<\/p>\n<p>In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul reminds us \u201cFor God has not given us a spirit of cowardice\u201d but of holy boldness. Leonard Sweet then reminds us that \u201cspizzerinctum involves the habit of saying \u2018yes\u2019 to the moment. Jesus received each moment as a gift, less going after what he wanted, but wanting what came to him.\u201d What a gift indeed!<\/p>\n<p>SPREZZATURA becomes a traveling companion to spizzerinctum on the journey toward spiritual maturity. It is an antidote to the risk-free desire of most Christians today. In Sweet\u2019s words:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe key to sprezzatura is paradox, the audacious algebra of the spiritual, the natural language of faith. If one reason why the church isn\u2019t the most creative place around, it\u2019s the fear of living with contradictions\u2026Sprezzatura is the magic word that opens heaven\u2019s doors and lets out Truth.\u201d (p. 91)<\/p>\n<p>Too often, our spiritual journeys are mapped out knowing where the next warming hut will be &#8212; what the Sunday service will be like, sound like, or smell like. We find comfort in the sameness of our lives. Yet that sameness can suffocate our spirits.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus didn\u2019t know where he would lay his head on a given night. He received each moment as a gift, less going after what he wanted, but wanting what came to him. He had both Spizzerinctum and Sprezzatura.<\/p>\n<p>If we want to follow Jesus, why do we settle for less? Being older is no excuse for wanting less.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>The Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for<br \/>\nthe Conference Council on Older Adult Ministries for the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rqmweb.com\/results.asp?q=pnwumc&amp;resID=2597&amp;detail=Y\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"New Beginnings\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/ANN_OTS_NewBeginnings.jpg?w=696\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td>\n<p class=\"padding\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rqmweb.com\/results.asp?q=pnwumc&amp;resID=2597&amp;detail=Y\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>New Beginnings: The Gifts of Aging (D4335)<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nWant a visual picture of \u201cSpizzerinctum\u201d and \u201cSprezzaturra\u201d in action? Check out this DVD with its inspiring stories of creative older adults engaged in life-giving service and ministry to others. Let this video spark ideas for your church\u2019s ministry with older adults.&nbsp; To reserve this video now, e-mail <a href=\"mailto:ejohanson@pnwumc.org?Subject=Re: New Beginnings: The Gifts of Aging (D4335)\">The Regional Media Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Images courtesy of Wikipedia:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Jesus_Sits_by_the_Seashore_and_Preaches_%28J%C3%A9sus_s%27assied_au_bord_de_la_mer_et_pr%C3%AAche%29_-_James_Tissot.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"> Jesus Sits by the Seashore and Preaches<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gray728.svg\" target=\"_blank\"> Figure 728 from Gray&#8217;s Anatomy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gray677.png\" target=\"_blank\"> Cerebral peduncle<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nurturing Elders and Others Spiritual maturity needs \u201cspizzerinctum\u201d and \u201csprezzatura\u201d! By the Rev. Paul Graves In his 2011 book \u201cA Lever and A Place to Stand\u201d, Richard Rohr offers this profound challenge to older adults: Scientists are now saying that the neural grooves that you prefer and use become ingrained patterns in the brain. If [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":3628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-older-adult-ministries"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/COLUMNS_NurturingElders.jpg?fit=600%2C308&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-Wm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4900,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/4900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}