Titles as Icons

Alone.  
The Confession.  
Dead or Alive.  
Unbroken.  
Heaven is for Real.  
Known and Unknown.  
The Hidden Reality. 
Life. 

Each word or phrase on the list  is the title of a book on the NYT Combined Print and E-Book Best Sellers list. Each points to the most basic questions of life, death and the relationships in between.  It’s the spiritual undertone to each word or phrase that has me fascinated.  A good title of a book serves in some way as an icon to connect what the author is offering between the pages and what the reader wants or needs to hear.  If these are best sellers, I’d propose that each one of these titles point to an epidemic of spiritual hunger, of desire for connection.

Many people today claim to be spiritual rather than religious. The difference is the role community makes.  Spirituality is between me and the God who goes by many names. That’s a good and wonderful thing but for the relationship to be all that it can be, it’s the community of others sharing the spiritual journey and shaping a common life as one body that makes the difference.  Where do you see evidence of spiritual need or desire for connection to something greater or deeper than ourselves?  What should be our response?          –Mary Slenski