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Soulful Aging

2 Corinthians 4:16
16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

“Growing old is not for the weak of heart” my father used to tell me. At the time I was in my 50’s and still ‘too young’ to truly appreciate his words. Now in my 70’s his message has more meaning. Throughout retirement my husband and I have talked a lot about healthy aging and not wanting to become ‘old’ in spirit, so a couple of years ago we participated in an E-course called Soulful Aging with Thomas Moore.

Thomas Moore says, ‘aging is not growing old, it is becoming a person’. Becoming more and more your own person – not just adding on the birthdays but positively becoming a person, developing humanity. I find retirement, my current spiritual path, a more meditative time; a time to connect with my identity, my past, of letting go of control. By opening myself to life and with God’s help. … our inner nature is being renewed day by day….. It seems like Paul knew something.

I would like to think that Paul is referring to our soul; which Thomas Merton, a Jesuit monk, described as the Divine Spark of God in each of us. Ralph Waldo Emerson said of the soul, “at the level of the soul…we go through passages that take us to new levels”. Thomas Moore defines the soul as the essence of who we are revealed in relationships. Our relationship with life, with others, with the Divine Spark within.

Growth is lifelong, each phase a new beginning to renewing our inner nature day by day, a new opportunity to be in relationship with the Divine Spark within.


Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4


Here is prayer on aging from the Sisters of Providence:


Oh, God, awaken within me the gift of these years.
Teach me to trust so I can face my fears.
Teach me to “be” so I can live.
Teach me to receive as in this I also give.

Let me slow down, savor the moment
Then I can hear your whispers spoken.
Help me to embrace this “sage-ing”
And share it with the youthful aging.

Grace me with humility
And lead me to your tranquility.
For in this utter surrender,
I come to accept your grace so tender.

Give me courage to face my unanswered questions.
Guide me to the soul-filled suggestions.
Balance has always been a challenge.
Create it in me as my life re-arranges.

Loosen my grip, set my spirit free
So I can discover who I’m called to be.
It’s not easy to lose independence.
But I want to trust it’s for greater transcendence.

How grateful am I for the gifts I receive?
Deepen my faith so I can always believe.

Aging well has no map.
Just be my source to bridge the gap.

Amen.