When I was in seminary, I often heard students say that they couldn't wait to finish in order to get to the real world of the parish. We're constantly dividing up our lives, splitting them into segments, compartments. During the week we have our professional and family lives, then maybe on Sunday the religious side comes out. Sometimes it feels like we live in a schizoid world where we go through life with a split personality, where we wear many different hats or have different aspects of our lives that never connect. But I think people are looking for connections, trying to bring the various aspects of their lives together into some coherent whole.
Holistic health is certainly popular today.
We are learning the way the mind and body together achieve health. This is where I believe the church has failed the culture. We have not done a good job of making those connections. The word 'religion,' from the Latin, religare , means to make connections, to bind together. Yet, the church has very often failed to provide the basis religious needs of people because we are just as guilty as every one else, guilty of splitting up the world.