“May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo,” wrote the Irish poet, scholar and spiritual leader John O’Donohue in Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, his last book before his death at the early age of 52 last year.

It is the kind of gentle, soothing phrase that can offer comfort in spaces of vacancy that come upon us unbidden.  For so many right now, that vacancy is the absence of a job, of income and then in too many cases, a spiraling effect that creates loss homes, dignity and for many, it’s a hard reach for hope.  So where on earth is spirituality to be found in the midst of the havoc wrought by this recession?

A few years ago I wrote an article for TheSocialEdge.com on spirituality in the face of the crisis of unemployment. At that time, “downsizing” was the buzz word and people who never thought they’d be unemployed were finding themselves out of work and a bit lost.  It was nothing  compared to what is happening now. It’s interesting to look back at that article because as I put out the word that I wanted to interview people experiencing lengthy unemployment I found the pool of people I talked with still remained affluent in the eyes of anyone outside their situation looking at it. I didn’t find people who were losing homes, cars, dignity.  What I found were affluent Americans who were surprised and embarrassed by unemployment, even though it was no fault of their own.  But in virtually every case (and I was surprised by this), they had a “net.”

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The folks I interviewed had savings, nice severance packages, and in many cases a spouse with a very good job who was still working.  They weren’t in danger of homelessness, and they weren’t selling or pawning their goods.  They weren’t seeking Food Stamps (now called “Nutrition Assistance,” doesn’t that sound nicer?). They weren’t asking for utility help.  They weren’t living in their cars, if they even had a car.  My only requirement for interviewing them was that they had to have been out of work for a year or more, and they were people who considered themselves to have a spiritual life before this.

All of my interviewees were well educated and most had  years of experience.  That, in fact, made it harder to find new jobs.   They faced the “over-qualified” denial of jobs. They were over-educated for the “day-jobs” that college students or those without college educations could easily get.  The search for work went on, and for most it was self-image, ego, that took the biggest blow.

On the other today’s legions of unemployed have little time for ego and would gladly take something they are overqualified for.  That’s still a problem.

For these white collar, long-term unemployed of a few years ago, eventually, as the months went on, they found a big bonus for their spirituality.  TIME.  They realized they had time (and guess what, the money . . . ) to go on retreats for example.  Something they couldn’t do before.  They had time to read the books they had wanted to read.  Time to begin to learn to meditate.  Some decided to go to graduate school.  (Many already had graduate degrees.) They had the money to do that, which is notable too. Time to do volunteer work.  It became a silver lining.  These folks weren’t stressing about foreclosure.  They were quite ways from that.  And eventually, all of them, found  work.  Some took that time to make decision to change careers completely.  But I was struck even then at how hard they took what was a relatively well padded period of enforced change.

This was the unemployment of the affluent.

Today what we are seeing is a far cry from that.  Chris Gardner, the man who’s own homeless to wealth story is told in the move Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, calls today’s recession-caused casualties “white collar homelessness,” in his new book, Start Where You Are. Much like the Great Depression, today’s homeless are people who never thought this would or could happen to them. It’s causing a crisis of mind and spirit among those who have no spiritual equipment to face this challenge.

So where do those suffering the enormous stress of foreclosure, eviction, inability to keep a car, needing help from an overtaxed system or overtaxed friends and family, find their spirituality?

I’m sure these folks would love to go on a retreat, but sure don’t have money for that luxury.  Ironically, a summer retreat program I did a volunteer stint with  five years ago in the Blue Ridge Mountains, closed up shop this year after decades of offering this weeklong retreat to inner city families on the East Coast. The reason? The economy.  Poor families to begin with couldn’t raise the funds to make the trip, or if they had jobs, take the time off. Scholarship funds dwindled too.  So a fantastic spiritual renewal week has also been cut due to the economy. 

Many of these folks might love to relax and read those books take a class or volunteer.  But it’s awfully hard to even concentrate let alone enjoy a book when the eviction notice is sitting on the table and electricity is being shut off. Taking a class is laughable for the cost, and volunteering might seem like a luxury too, when pounding the pavement or the internet for a job takes priority.

This is a time for a spirituality that has guts, that is tough, that is not the time-out kind, but the time-in kind.  It’s a time when the ONE Prayer that is the message of the Angel Gabriel today, and the ONE petition, make sense.  The ONE Prayer, the only prayer we need, is the prayer that Jesus taught when asked, “how should we pray?”  It is the Lord’s Prayer.  The “Our Father.” The one petition is not a prayer for money, for a job, for the house, or any of that.  It is the prayer for strength.  “Father grant me strength in this time, in this absence, in this loss. Grant me strength, and I will have faith for the rest.” This is a humble prayer.

“He who asks for strength will receive it,” is the message of the Angel Gabriel to the world today.  Your faith is called upon to be faith-FULL. Remain faithful, pray for strength, and God will answer.  That is the message, and that is the tough spirituality needed in these times. 

It is a spirituality of humility found in absence, filled with the strength of echoes reverberating us forward into strength.

And for those who are doing well, for those who prosper — they are called upon for demonstrative spirituality — to do as Jesus taught as well:  to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned.  Help out, in other words. With strength and faith, this will pass. Love your neighbor as yourself as the Master taught.  Help, and receive strength in doing so as well.

Then will your absences grow full of eternal echoes. 

Unemployment Star Wars Photo by: DYL86 / Marvels of Unemployment photo by: Diego Cupolo