Faith
A Rich Spiritual Life
What does it mean to have a rich spiritual life? What would your day need to look like in order to achieve that life? We have daily needs in our spiritual life that need to be met in order for us to keep making forward progress and in order for us to live truly free.
I’ve written many times on the topics of sin, temptation, and reconciliation. The theme of sin in our lives is one that we all share. We’re all in the struggle and the struggle is real. The more we resist sin, at least initially, the more challenging overcoming temptation is. There’s pushback, there’s relapse, and there’s getting back up.
I think that many of us, when working on amending our lives, fail to realize just how big of an impact our daily prayer routine and spiritual habits play in our success. The more time we devote to prayer and turning our thoughts back to God, the more resilient we are to temptation. The less we sin, the more free we are. The less we sin, the more we realize just how trapped our sin was making us.
As with all other aspects of our lives, success comes through integration. A rich spiritual life encompasses all forms of prayer at regular intervals throughout the day. It may include the Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or any number of devotionals. It may include time reading the Bible, meditating, using the Magnificat, or any other spiritual reading. It should include the more informal conversation with God. A combination of all of these types of prayer make up a rich daily spiritual life.
The key to success is not quantity or duration, but rather frequency. Small doses throughout the day help to maintain focus. Small interactions with prayer lead to increased clarity and awareness. When temptation comes, and it always does, you’ll be less likely to fall for it without a fight. Since your prayer routine has you engaged in your thoughts and your work, you’ll reason through the temptation and be able to dismiss it for what it truly is. You’ll be able to logically discern where engaging with that temptation will end up and whether or not it’s something that you truly want to do.
I believe that the most important part of a rich spiritual life is constant change. As you grow closer to God, you’ll change. You will become a new person, more unique than you were before. In the spirit of that constant change, your daily prayer routine should change with you. There will be times when you’re really into a particular type of prayer and other times when you’re not. If your prayer routine doesn’t change, you’ll become bored and more likely to abandon the pursuit of holiness. Change keeps things new, fresh, exciting, and suited to where you are in life.
A rich spiritual life is necessary not only to be the best person that you can be, but in order to be truly free. By engaging in prayer regularly throughout the day, in varied forms, you’ll live your live more alive and engaged with your day than before and be better prepared to reject Satan, and all of his works, and all of his empty promises.
The Sky Rarely Falls
People have been predicting the end of the United States and the collapse of the dollar since the very beginning of our Nation. There are plenty of threats and things to fear out there, but the sky rarely falls. If you find yourself living in constant fear of the economic or political collapse of your society, then you’ve placed your trust in the wrong god.
None of us can know what’s going to happen in the future, and we’ve all experienced economic, political, and social unrest. The fact remains that things always recover. Our emotions can be so easily manipulated by the media that we consume–it’s important for us to keep our priorities straight. We trust in God to provide for us, we act with common sense, and we build our homes on solid foundations.
I, too, find myself starting to worry when things falter economically, but that fear is more about my lack of security than anything else. I then take that fear and direct it towards sound financial decision making that sets my family on solid ground. While things may be bad today, when looking at the big picture, this is just yet another blip. If I save, eliminate debt, and plan for the future, I won’t be at the mercy of the market.
I don’t fret about political elections because there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen. In the ten months between now and election day, so much could happen. Worrying about the outcome does absolutely nothing. Instead I research the candidates and vote when the polls are open.
Many claim the sky is falling, but they are shown to be silly when the next day, the sky is still where it ought to be. Place your faith, and trust, in God. Make wise decisions and focus your creative energies on those things that will improve your life and the lives of those around you.
The Daily Struggle for Goodness
When you’re trying to live a better life, a holier life, don’t expect evil to just roll over and take it. The struggle between God and the Devil is a zero sum game. For every person that lives a holy life, there’s that much less capacity for evil in the world. When seeking renewal or change, be prepared for the onslaught.
Evil wants power, absolute control, and absolute corruption. Like a disease, evil from one person can spread to another. A person who’s fallen victim to sin can easily pull someone else into sin with them. In the same way, holiness in one person can spread to another.
Being tempted isn’t a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it can be a sign that you’re doing the right thing. That doesn’t make it easier to endure, but it does give you more leverage to resist. The more momentum you have in your quest for holiness, the more successful you’ll be. We can’t reasonably expect for temptation to go away, but we can expect it to subside. Like lifting weights, the more frequently we resist temptation, the stronger we become.
Sin and evil are a fact of life, but participating in them doesn’t have to be. Through the Sacraments, grace, prayer, and diligence, you can live a holy life. Millions of Saints have done just that, so why not be the next one?
Turning Your Thoughts Back to God
We have a lot of mentally idle time. Folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, running errands, and even doing work that requires low levels of mental resources, and we oftentimes fill those spaces with day dreams, list making, or anxiety. What if instead, we took those times and turned our thoughts back to God?
I think there’s a lot of benefit in using our downtime to thinking about the things of God. Too often we’re tempted to focus on the negative, and so spending our resources and energies on contemplating good things can help us have brighter days. The more time you spend thinking about the things of God, the happier you’ll be, the more energy you’ll have, and the less anxiety you’ll experience.
What kinds of things should you ponder while thinking about the things of God? Thinking about how generous God has been towards you, how amazing the Sacraments are, and the blessings He’s given you can be a tremendous boost to your day. You could also spend the time thinking about ways in which things seemed to work out poorly in the moment, but in hindsight you can see how they were for the best. Of course, you could also have a simple dialogue with God about your thoughts, ideas, and emotions.
I find that contemplating the mind of God helps me to remain grounded. There are many things that impact my attitude on a daily basis, and by keeping my perspective focused upwards, I’m able to remain better grounded. That means less time being impatient or frustrated, and more time being joyful and energized.
Spend less time focusing on the negative and more time focusing on the things of God. You’ll be glad you did.
Hell Isn’t For Me
While I was in Drivers Ed, I learned a valuable lesson. Where your eyes go, the car goes. We’re playing the long game here on Earth. In the routine of our daily lives, thinking about where we’ll be in the life after this one can be easily overlooked. Yet, at the same time, our actions and choices within our daily routine point to where we’re oriented. I’ve never once been happy as a result of committing a sin, yet sometimes I find myself in a cycle of decisions leading me further away from the life that God has planned for me.
The design of the human mind is intriguing. Although intellectually we can grasp that sin is harmful and doesn’t lead to happiness, we still choose it on a regular basis. There are many theological explanations, but isn’t it interesting in and of itself that the human mind, without morals or guidance, will tend toward making decisions based on impulsive wants.
The challenge of the Christian life is to overcome this self-centeredness. The challenge is to respond with love when your wife is annoying you, to respond with love when you’re tired but your children need something from you, and to respond with love when another person deeply offends you.
Heaven is real, and so is Hell. When standing in the Confession line it’s easy to say where we want to end up. Yet, in the moment, when we’re out in the world confronted by temptation, our decision making process can become much more cloudy.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that in order for us to have true happiness, we have to reject things that present themselves as something good or beneficial for us. Sin always dresses itself in the robes of goodness, yet when unmasked its true destruction is revealed. By saying no to sin and denying ourself a passing pleasure, we choose to embrace and accept the lasting happiness that following God’s Will brings.
In the routine of our daily lives, we need to do things that keep us oriented to our destination of choice. Like our eyes in the car, if we look towards Hell, we’ll end up there. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the eternal good, on the fruits of Heaven, we’ll surely end up there, right where we belong.
Ask God for the Big Things
Understanding God with the human mind is impossible. In order to help us bridge that gap into the impossible, we have to equate Him to something we can relate to. At various times and in different situations we may think of Him as our Dad, as a disciplinarian, or perhaps even as Santa Claus. The mistake that we make is that we pull God down to our level, instead of raising our minds to His. When we bring God down to our level, we miss out on the opportunity to truly experience His glory.
Time and time again, Scripture tells us to ask and we shall receive. Truly God hears and answers our prayers in all ways, shapes, and forms. Yet, too often we fail to be like King Solomon. When presented with an offer of anything, Solomon asked for the wisdom to lead his people. Wow! Now that’s a big ask. Not only is it a big ask, it’s the right ask. Solomon asked for a gift that he might use to serve others. He understood in some small way the capacity of God, and asked for a gift that only God could grant.
We need to be more generous in what we ask of God. While there’s certainly no limit to the number of prayers and requests we make to God, we should use those prayers to benefit others. Our lives are comfortable and easy compared to many others. This is a habit of the greatest saints in the Church: spending more time asking for graces for others than for themselves.
We also need to stop asking God for the trivial. As students, we asked for help for a test that we didn’t study for. Looking back, we asked the God who created us out of literally nothing, who built us out of two single cells, to help us circle a few right answers. We need to be more like Solomon, and ask God for the big things.
God has chosen to limit our ability to fully understand His existence, and at the same time, through the Church, has fully revealed Himself to us. In order to become the saints we were made to be, we need to stop trying to pull Him down to our level and instead let Him raise us to His. He’s capable of anything, let Him reveal His power to you.
Lean on God
It’s human nature to want to be independent. We want to be free to make our own decisions and have the dignity of supporting ourselves. Our quest to be beholden to no one begins early in our development, becoming most evident in our teenage years. While we see dependence as a weakness, the question must be asked: is it? No matter how independent we seek to become, is total independence really something to pursue? Certainly there are some worthy forms of independence such as that of financial independence or the independence of living on your own. Yet, as humans, I think it’s necessary for us to be totally dependent in one sense. We must be totally dependent on God.
There is no independence from God. Philosophically and theologically, if we were independent from God, we wouldn’t be here because His thought of us sustains our existence. But I don’t want to make this about an intellectual exercise, rather, I want to explore this as an exercise of love. We should embrace our dependance on God and love Him for it.
Benedict is now 2 years old. Little by little, he gains independence from me. Yet, even though he can do little things, he still needs my help to achieve the essential things. He can eat food on his own, but he needs me to prepare it for him. He can walk around outside, but he needs me to open the door for him. He doesn’t loathe his dependance on me. Rather, he embraces it joyfully. He smiles, laughs, and eagerly runs to me as I do all of these things for him. We should take the same tack in our relationship with God.
All of the blessings in our lives are thanks to the good graces of God. Our family, employment, finances, health, and freedom are all a direct result of God giving us those blessings. As a part of our dependance on God, we should be joyful and eager to ask for more blessings. It’s not selfish, it’s what He’s promised. Time and time again we hear in Scripture about God’s promise to provide for us, both in good times and bad.
We should ask God for the big things and for the little things. We should ask Him for help in small ways and for help in big ways. We should also always remember to give Him the praise and thanks that are due. The best way to do that is to live a life of service as He asked.
Our dependance on God is not a burden to be borne, but rather a gift to be embraced. Like any good parent, He wants to shower us with love, graces, affection, and blessings, if only we ask for them.
Evil is Real
How many times have we witnessed the great falls of those whom claim to be holy and religious? How many times have we heard of televangelists, missionaries, and people that we once regarded to be of high moral standing exposed as being other than what they claimed? For some fraction of these cases, the individuals themselves were perpetrating a fraud. For the large majority of cases, we should walk away with one lesson: evil is real.
The more good that you do in the world, the more spiritual fruit that you bear, the bigger target that you become. It’s understandable that if you’re doing good things and people are being changed by them, you’ll become a bigger target for the Devil. Taking down one prominent person does more damage with less work than trying to topple followers one at a time.
Truthfully, I don’t think many of us think about the Devil as being at work in our lives. Certainly we see war, terrorism, and other violence and tacitly acknowledge that it’s the work of the Devil, but by and large, we don’t really believe that he’s real. I even feel weird using the word “devil” in this post, as if I’m some crazy religious nut who should be dismissed by my readers as such.
That’s the thing, though. That feeling that I’ll be perceived as crazy is a sign that his work is effective. The more dismissive we are about his existence and the more complacent we grow, the easier it is for him to work. He’s subtle and subversive, working quietly until it’s too late.
He’s at work, always looking for weaknesses and flaws to exploit. He’s “prowling like a roaring lion” in our world. So if you’re out there doing good things, know that he’s looking for ways to undo them. The good that we do and the holiness that we achieve diminishes his work and effectiveness. He’s looking to take you down. Don’t let your denial of his existence give him greater influence over your decisions.
Evil is real, never doubt that. But evil is so much less than Good.
Gratitude is at the Heart of the Christian Life
Today, we celebrate the amazing Thanksgiving. Although this humble holiday tends to get trampled on by shopping deals and the upcoming Christmas season, it’s actually one of the most important days of the year. Thanksgiving is all about gratitude, which is a central theme of the Christian life.
We are who we are, where we are, blessed as we are, because of God. Thanksgiving turns our minds back to that reality. Families have so few opportunities each year to all gather together, and Thanksgiving presents that opportunity. Cousins get to play together, aunts and uncles get to play with their nieces and nephews, and all take time to reflect on the many blessings that they’ve received throughout the past year. What a beautiful holiday!
Gratitude is a central theme of the Christian life because it serves as the core of humility. Gratitude recognizes that our good life is a result of the good graces of another. Not only to we acknowledge the providence of God, but also those who make our lives easier, better, and more prosperous. The first Thanksgiving demonstrates this principle as the pilgrims thanked God for safe journey and the Native Americans for helping them through a difficult transition to their new lives.
There’s much anger, hurt, and sadness in the World today, but all of us can find at least one bright spot in our lives and be grateful for the blessings that we’ve been given. Eat well, enjoy the time with your family, and pass the mashed potatoes!
Starting Fresh
We all love a fresh start. New beginnings are always full of hope, excitement, and promise. We feel refreshed, able to take on the world and whatever challenges life sends our way. Fresh starts can be hard to come by. In relationships, past hurts get in our way. First impressions are lasting impressions and, if you make a mistake, it can be extremely difficult to overcome. What if there was a way to get a true fresh start? What if there was a reset button you could press that would wipe the slate clean and get you back on track?
Our yearning for fresh starts begins with an acknowledgement that we are weak. We make mistakes, dozens of mistakes, every single day. None of us has a great track record. It’s out of this reality that God offers us, through the Church and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the fresh start that we so desperately need.
Confession is that new beginning. It’s the grace we need to start fresh, to start over, and to get it right this time. We know the path isn’t easy, but we choose to comb the mountain anyway. But Confession is only that, a beginning. When we leave the confessional, it’s immediately up to us to make better choices and temptation is waiting as close as the doors of the Church.
So, how do we keep from messing it up again?
Stop giving yourself passes. There’s a balance to be struck between being overly scrupulous and too lax in our treatment of ourselves. We can be tempted to be too nit-picky, or we can be tempted to chalk all of our sins up to our humanity and move on. It’s time to get tough and find the middle of the road. Yes, we will sin. But those sins can be minor.We have the ability to control ourselves, we need to use it.
Get serious about Heaven and Hell. We don’t know when death is coming, but at some point, it will. We like to think that we’ll live until we’re at least 80, and most of us will. However, no matter what age you are, people older than you have died, and people who are younger than you have died. That means we need to get serious about the reality of Heaven and Hell and we need to buy our ticket, today. We must decide where we want to spend eternity and let our thoughts, actions, and choices flow from that decision.
Turn the focus off you. I love focusing on me, but one of the best way to reduce incidents of sin is to focus on someone else. Most sin is about me and how I want to feel. So if I lose myself in service to others (wife, kids, friends, community), I’ll have less opportunity to commit sin. As much as I love me, I could love me a lot less and be much more happy.
Fresh starts are amazing, but it’s important to not blow it. Next time you’re in line for Confession, make planning a better life for yourself part of your examination of conscience.