Pope Benedict XVI opens his encyclical on Christian hope with the reminder that our "salvation is not simply a given" (Spe Salvi, 1). Salvation is offered to us. We can respond to this offer wholeheartedly or refuse it. Often our response is half-hearted.
The Holy Father's remarks suggest that the Christian spiritual life is not a free and easy ride. Rather, living the spiritual life entails being conformed to the person of Christ, brought into communion with the Father and all the living through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As the rich tradition of Christian spirituality shows, growth in the spiritual life requires discipline. While practice may not make perfect in the Christian spiritual life, there is no growth in the Spirit without it.
Each generation of Christians faces particular challenges in the spiritual life. As the title of this series in spirituality indicates, ours is a time marked by enormous cultural change, indeed upheaval. Are there spiritual practices that help us to be conformed to the person of Christ today, disciplines that are useful in responding to God's grace being offered amidst of the changing times in which we live?
All too often, we are inclined to look for a precise prescription or set of prescriptions which we can adopt so that we are guaranteed results in the spiritual life. It simply does not work that way.
What is required, not simply desirable, is for each person to find a way, or make a way, given his or her particular circumstances, the state in life to which one has been called. The monastic fast throughout the Lenten season is clearly not an appropriate spiritual discipline for a mother who must nourish her family from Ash Wednesday through Holy Week.
Are there some common practices we all might adopt as we seek to be conformed to Christ in our own time and place? Yes. But the precise way of implementing these practices will vary.
1. Be still. We are very pragmatic people. We work hard. We want to do, to achieve, to accomplish our goals. This is all to the good. But all too often our sense of self is wrapped too tightly to what we do, to our achievements. We are working ourselves to death. We too easily become doers unto death.
This is also true of ministers in the Church, ordained, consecrated or lay. For those of us who are inclined to think of ourselves principally in terms of our work rather than, say, our relationships, it is useful to remember: If you are what you do, then when you don't, then you're not. This is to say that when reach a point in life where we are unable to do anything of significance because of old age, accident, or illness, the question may emerge with full force for the first time: Am I not more than all that I have done, more than my many accomplishments, more than the sum total of my achievements both great and small?
Caught up in a frenzy of doing, we need to find ways to pause and ponder --- if only for a few moments a day.
2. Breathe. We travel through life at breakneck speed. We race from one thing to the next. Contemporary wisdom has it that we need to take time to smell the roses. But the heart of the matter for many of us is: What roses? We move so fast through our days that we fail to notice. We do not pay attention. We are not alert to the traces of God's nearness in human life, in creation, in the events of our times, and in the Church.
Let's slow down and take a deep breath, and consider the words of Thomas Merton: "Each breath we take is a gift; each moment of life is a grace."
3. Listen. We are soaked and saturated with noise. It seems that we cannot escape. Places such as bookstores and libraries were once designated as quiet spaces. Safe havens for those seeking silence must now be sought elsewhere. Bookstores are infiltrated by a seeming random mix of pop, rap, reggae and the latest from Eminem or the Dixie Chicks; libraries have become more like chat rooms --- online or face to face.
Caught in a tsunami of noise, awash in a cacophony of discordant notes and conflicting messages, how are we to listen to the beating of the heart of God who is the source and end of the spiritual life?
4. Receive. There's just too much junk; too many things. Shopping has become a sport. Along with watching television, strolling through the mall may be America's favorite pastime. We are surrounded by things we do not need; so much of what we have acquired we no longer want. Clutter everywhere: in our homes, garages, our workplaces. We grab, we clutch, we hoard. And in so doing we forget how to receive.
The most important practical lesson in the Christian spiritual life is learning how to receive. Spiritual practices are not principally about doing. The whole of the Christian life and all our spiritual practices are aimed at readying ourselves to receive God's love given in the sending of the Only Son, and in the gift of the Spirit poured into our hearts. Dr. Michael Downey is the Cardinal's Theologian and Professor of Spirituality at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo.
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