1) Which of your beliefs are unshakable?
The one which says that my faith is mutable, fluid, flexible, defined only by the understanding that nothing of God can be known. I'd rather have a certain uncertainty than an uncertain certainty.
2) When and how has your faith been sorely tested? What beliefs and practices sustained you though those times?
I've had periods that I refer to as my 'egypt times', in memory of the travail of the Hebrews in Egypt. One such time, that I've written of elsewhere as a desolate place between not quite believing, not quite denying, lasted years. What sustained me was neither faith nor hope, but will. The determination to find something that satisfied - even if it didn't answer the perennial, unanswerable, questions that plague most people of faith.
Such satisfaction came late in life (relatively) - but it did come.
) Ultimately, faith is an individual decision. We discover for ourselves what works for us, what we believe in, how we relate to the divine. Write a simple prayer that expresses what is sacred to you.
I don't pray - if by prayer is meant the craven whining for favors (whether for oneself or others) that I hear in church. But I often invoke. This is an invocation I often make.
Arise, Motherfucker, since you are my God,
my God forever.
Vindicate me according to your word concerning yourself
destroy those who oppose me
stop every mouth that speaks against me
cast down my enemies by the invincible strength of your right arm.
According to your spoken word
arise and come to my aid
set my feet upon your rock
set me to see the blood of my enemies
run in streams around me
for I am your servant and your true believer.
In faith I call upon your secret Name for my
justification, my vindication, my redemption.
Arise, Motherfucker, you who are
my God, my God forever.
Vindicate me according to the word you have spoken
that even my enemies may testify to
your righteousness.
4) People of strong fauth are very inspiring. Who are your spiritual mentors? Whose devotions or beliefs do you admire most? What can you learn from them and apply to your own life?
Dante - the first author in any genre who said something real to me about God. What I learned from him was this - you don't get to go to hell because you're sent. You get to go because you want to. The same principle applies to heaven, but I never had much interest in heaven, even when I believed in it.
As to others, there's Gilles de Retz, Erzebet Bathory, the Marquis de Sade, who taught me about the sanctity of flesh. Not, please note, the 'sanctity of life' - we're all born between shit and piss and most of us live and die there. But flesh is a sacrament in itself.
5)Author Elizabeth Oakes Smith called faith 'the subtle chain which binds us to the infinite'. What re the links in your chain? Certain boosk or teachings? A spiritual leader, teacher or advisor? Specific rituals or practices? If your chain is weak, how can you strengthen it?
There's nothing subtle about the 'chain which binds us to the infinite'. It's called mortality, and for the majority its links are made of suffering, not joy. Why else would I refer to my God as a motherfucker? I've long been of the opinion that his (or hers or its) favourite hobby is genocide. What strengthens the chain, for me? The beauty of the world, and the ugliness of most of its inhabitants.
Not one or the other, but both, together and in the same instant.
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