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As Saint Teresa of Avila
emphasized,
consistency is
the first step towards deep prayer.
The Church teaches us to pray
every day, but this critical issue
is usually lacking.
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What Consistency Is:
In this section we will show
what is required by consistency.
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Regular Attendance:
In order to be consistent
(insofar as deep prayer is
concerned), we need to spend some
time each day to be alone with
God. In fact, we need to strive to
not miss more than three or four
times a year. When a day is
missed, more time should be set
aside the next day (not that this
would make up for the missed day).
Two consecutive days should not be
missed.
The prayer time should be in
the morning, but it is better to
get in a time consistently than to
get in an inconsistent time in the
morning. The morning prayer time
is strategic because we need to
order ourselves after sleeping. As
examples of this, Saint Catherine
of Siena did not like her
associates to sleep during the day
because she was afraid that they
would lose what they had gained
during the day. Saint John Vianney
complained that he had to start
over each day which is a common
complaint among Saints. While we
are sleeping, we lose the holy
focus we gained the day before.
The morning prayer time helps us
restore our frame of mind.
It is usually easier to be
consistent in the morning than at
any other time of the day. As an
example, how often does our phone
ring at 5:00 A.M. verses 5:00
P.M.? Whether we answer the phone,
is a personal decision.
Prayer is something that
involves the whole heart, mind,
and soul with all the available
strength. The prayer time should
not be counted unless the entire
attention is given to God. As a
matter of efficiency, it is
tempting to pray while perfoming
some mundane task such as driving,
jogging, or washing the dishes.
This temptation should be
rejected. Even those with
active ministries need
a time to be alone with God. Our
souls need a time to heal.
Many people can not find a time
to be alone with God. For
example, a mother might have
several young children that
require constant attention. Each
case requires a unique solution,
but as Saint Francis told Saint
Clare, "Walk across the field, and
you will find a path." In other
words, when a solution is sought,
an answer will be found. In the
case of the busy mother, as she
prays while watching the children
both she and the children will
adjust to this (although there may
be some frustration and friction),
and this prayer is sufficient for
deep prayer to occur.
On the other hand, let us
suppose that the mother's attitude
is that no deep prayer can occur
with all of these children at her
feet driving her crazy.
Therefore, she decides to pray
while doing chores. By doing this,
she might have profound religious
experiences, but she will not
progress into deep prayer unless
God miraculously intervenes on a
regular basis (basically, this
won't happen because it violates
the mother's free will). She can't
find the path without walking
across the field.
We often pray with the mistaken
notion that God speaks after we
have quieted our mind. God usually
speaks, but our internal appetites
prevent us from hearing (not the
external noise). In other words,
the external noise triggers the
internal appetites, and we become
victims of our environment. It
doesn't have to be like this.
Those of us with active ministries
will have to become the masters of
our environment if we are to be
instruments of God in all seasons.
At first, the avoidance of
distractions may seem nearly
impossible, but as we build our
relationship with God, the armor
of God (as St. Paul puts it)
shields us from forgetting about
God. God will give us whatever we
need to be Children of God
wherever God leads.
Deep prayer involves the
development of a relationship with
a living being who controls all
things. In the parable of the
pearl (Matthew 13:46), Jesus demonstrates the
importance of priorities. To get
our priorities straight, we must
set time aside everyday to be with
God.
To paraphase Saint Peter, only
God can save us, and we should
take our salvation seriously by
exercising our option to build a
relationship with God by praying
as deeply as we can every day. God
expects this of us. We have an
obligation to do it.
On the other hand, this process
will not occur if God is not given
priority over duty for a
sufficient time on a daily basis
because Faith is never the top
priority. We must be willing to
give up everything to obtain the
pearl.
When we establish a consistent
daily time where Faith has
priority over duty, Faith will
lead to Hope and Love. Then Love
will influence our appetites and
the pearl will become easier to
obtain.
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Time Commitment:
The prayer time needs to be
long enough to stretch the
spirituality of the pilgrim in
prayer. As a rule of thumb, an
effective prayer time would be
between 35 and 75 minutes, but
there can be many variables.
For example, attending Holy
Mass and receiving Holy Communion
before the prayer time, can make a
prayer time that is half as long
just as effective. This is
particularly the case if the
thoughts are controlled during
Mass (keeping your thoughts on God
during Mass is required by the
Church). Since Holy Mass, Holy
Communion, and a personal prayer
time all bring separate but
necessary ingredients into the
spiritual diet, a serious
spiritual pilgrim would do well to
see if a daily regimen of
attending Holy Mass, receiving
Holy Communion, and then adoring
the Blessed Sacrament can be
establish. The adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament can be
complemented by personal
preferences such as the Rosary or
Scriptures.
When we are unable to
concentrate, the prayer time will
normally be less effective. In
most cases, this can be
compensated for by praying longer.
For example, when we are sick, we
might have to pray 3 or 4 times
longer than normal before we reach
the same level of composure.
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Why Consistency Is Necessary:
In this section we will show
why
consistency is necessary to
reach
contemplation.
A person is a complex being made
up of complex parts. The parts
that make up a person are (at
least somewhat) independent (even
if they live in interdependent
relationships). By independent,
we mean that they make their own
decisions, have their specific
appetites, form their proprietary
opinions, and are guaranteed their
inalienable rights by God. For
example, the Church's rules on
birth control come from this area
(most say Humanae Vitae, but it’s
not like Pope Paul VI invented
rules against birth control. All
parts of the body are human and
have human dignity. It is wrong to
use other humans solely for
pleasure, the same applies to
parts of our body).
The concept that all things are
composed of parts extends to all
things (proven by Aristotle but
maybe earlier), but only humans
have parts that form original or
creative opinions (proven by
Aquinas).
Throughout the course of
scientific history, the proofs of
Aristotle and Aquinas are
ultimately confirmed. For example,
Aristotle had several basic
elements, but he said that these
elements would be comprised of
smaller elements. The discovery
and development of atomic science
proved how right Aristotle was.
The discovery of cells and later
DNA certainly verify how correct
Aquinas was.
Modern science, Aristotle, and
Aquinas all demonstrate that our
identity is formed by smaller
parts of similar intelligence who
have their own identity. For the
purposes of this book, the concept
of an aggregate identity being
formed by smaller but similar
individual identity will be called
intelligent recursion.
Since we are the aggregate of
our intelligent recursion, we have
to have consistency to advance to
deep prayer. Massive amounts of
intelligent independent parts will
never amount to much without some
form of civil order that allows
the formation of a common
consensus. For without cooperating
parts, the whole will be
compromised with indecision and
confusion. As an example, it is a
good thing we have all decided on
the same rules when we are driving
down the highway.
Imagine an army that had no
methods, organization, or
hierarchy. What chance would it
have of winning? A competing
general could probably win by
simply convincing them to join the
opposing army.
In fact, it can be shown that
the entire human race is in the
process of forming an aggregate
being, but we haven't experienced
any global self realization yet.
No one can answer the question of,
"Who am I?" in particular without
solving this riddle of human
identity in general.
We can speak of a national
legacy, but a nation won't
identify a race anymore than an
arm will identify a person. The
DNA will identify the person, but
the DNA is equivalent of an
individual. We are not a world of
nations, we are a race of
individuals.
It could be argued that a group
of individuals could ban together
to form a function for the race,
but this is not a nation. Nations
are primarily formed for
protection (not service or
cooperation). If all of this is
not enough, a nation does not
correctly identify the citizens.
Sure, we call ourselves Americans,
but America is not a race.
Even if America was a race,
this characteristic would only
demonstrate our lineage, but it
would not show much of our
intended function. The more
parochial American idealist might
argue that the proclamation of the
"American Way" is the identity of
Americans, but this way is similar
to the Greeks, Romans, and Franks.
Many of our laws mimic the English
who borrowed from their European
neighbors. To be sure, freedom is
necessary to the survival of our
race, but the concept of freedom
did not originate in America. We
Americans may have championed an
idea, but an idea is not an
identity.
We do not identify the cells in
an arm as an arm cell. We identify
them as blood, bone, nerve, skin,
or some other form of cell. In a
similar way, we are more accurate
identifying ourselves as farmers,
doctors, lawyers, engineers, or
some other vocation than by
identifying with where we live.
Each engineer is very different
than any other engineer. While our
vocation provides a taste of
identity it also falls far short
of estimating either the identity
or potential of the person. Since
we are our recursion, we know that
each cell in our body is different
from any other cell, and we can
not know the potential or identity
of any cell in particular without
knowing who we are as a person in
general.
If we look to our identity as a
human race, we find very little.
Our identity as a person is more
highly defined, and the identity
of each cell is more highly
defined than our identity as a
person. Since we can not know
anything without knowing who we
are, we have shown that
intelligence starts small and
aggregates itself up.
This process is a natural
occurence, but busy rigidly
dictated lives can retard or even
kill the natural order of things.
If we are ever going to realize
the potential of who we are, we
will need an environment that
nutures our identity. We can't let
a trivial thought dictate our
originality or restrict our
personality (especially if the
thought had an external origin).
For example, we can't find time to
pray, but we can find time for
trivial electronic sedatives such
as music, video, or games.
We are billions of small
independent parts that are in
search of a common interest. These
parts are not of one mind, but
they have a better understanding
of their identity than we do. We
must establish an environment that
rallies our recursive population
around a common Truth. As more of
our recursive elements align along
a common cause, we will gradually
realize what they hold dear. At
first, it will be fuzzy and
inaccurate, but with the right
environment, we will eventually
realize it.
As the ancient Greeks pointed
out (with their concept that we
are made up of smaller and smaller
parts to infinity and we make up
larger and larger parts to
infinity), the same process that
occurs within us also occurs in
the things we are a part of. In
other words, we can take
principles from larger levels of
recursion and apply them to
smaller levels of recursion. The
opposite direction is valid as
well.
At our level of recursion, the
Church brings people of a single
Faith together for common prayer
at regular intervals. She requires
weekly and prefers daily
gatherings. The Church also
gracefully fits the interval into
the calendar to provide a common
experience with greater levels of
recursion.
In these gatherings, we
remember the death of our Lord,
and we celebrate His Resurrection.
We are required to feel God's
presence and invited to consume
His flesh. By these examples, the
Church teaches us about many
things that should take place in
our personal prayer times, because
the Church is trying to accomplish
the same thing on a global level
that we want to accomplish on a
personal level. Water is nearly
the same whether it is drawn from
a kitchen faucet or a mighty
river. In the same vein, we are dealing
with the same issues in our
personal prayer times that the
Church deals with across the
entire human race.
It might be hard to believe,
but we are composed of many living
things who have their own ideas,
opinions, and vices. We can use
the wisdom of the Church who has
nearly the same problem. From the
bottom up, we know that many of
the Church's methods came from
individuals who were successful in
their prayer time.
On a practical note, if we have
a massive amount of independent
parts, we will not have much
organization without an imposed
rhythm, and we need the
organization to have the self
control required for deep prayer.
If a concert pianist wants to play
at the top level, the pianist will
need to practice every day. If a
day is missed, the pianist will
notice, and if two consecutive
days are missed, the audience will
notice.
Whole populations behave in a
similar manner. For example,
professional football has not
always enjoyed the popularity that
it has today. From its relatively
small beginning, it has become a
little more popular each year. At
this point, most of the nation is
mesmerized by the Super Bowl. If
the Super Bowl was randomly held
at different times and years, it
would lose some (if not most) of
its following because people would
not see it as important.
Taking this down to a human
level, if we were to awaken
someone every morning at 5:00 A.M.
for 100 consecutive mornings. We
can be reasonably certain that the
person would wake up at 5:00 A.M.
on the 101st morning without our
help.
A person who eats dinner every
evening at 6:00 P.M. sharp, will
tend to get hungry at 6:00 P.M..
In fact, it has been shown that
people who have regular meal times
weigh more than those who don't.
As a minimum, the Church
requires it members to gather and
pray once a week. When the Church
prays together, the members
reinforce each other's Faith.
Since there are many different
appetites in the Church, the
common ground that is built by
mutually strengthening each
other's Faith, bonds the members.
Hence the cliche, "The family that
prays together, stays together".
Group prayer plants the seeds
of Faith, and brings people closer
together, but the individual must
provide the environment for the
seeds to flourish. Just as there
are many appetites and wills in a
group, there are many appetites
and wills in an individual (from
intelligent recursion). As Aquinas
proved, we have no hope
controlling our appetites or
uniting our wills without prayer.
All good things work together.
As our appetites and wills turn
toward a common theme, we will
develop a fire and desire that we
never knew we had. In this, we
will begin to find an
inconquerable Spirit living within
us.
With the use of consistency,
the Church grew to what it is
today, but if the Church did not
insist on consistency (i.e.,
compulsory participation in the
Mass and Sacraments), it would all
be lost rather quickly.
The example of the Church shows
us how we can have a very rich and
rewarding life, but it will not
happen or be sustained without
consistency.
Group prayer and individual
prayer need each other. For they
are prayer at two different levels
of recursion. Just as a body needs
recursive material to makeup the
body, so group prayer needs
individual prayer to make up the
group. On the other hand, if a
small part of the body is
separated from the rest of the
body, it will not flourish like
the rest of the body. In the same
way (because it is the same
thing), individual prayer will die
without group prayer.
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Establishing Consistency:
Many, if not most us, feel that
the level of commitment which
consistency requires is not
possible for us. We are hurried
people with busy lives and full
schedules, but as the Bible would
say, "Vanity, vanity, vanity, all
is vanity". If the beginning of
the day is not spent with God, the
rest of the day will be spent in
vain.
After we understand how
important consistency is, some of
us can simply decide to be
consistent, but for most of us,
consistency is more than a step
away. God is patient. Consistency
can be gradually established if we
have a plan.
The simple way is the best. We
set that old alarm clock to ring a
little earlier. Then we drink some
coffee, do some exercises, take a
shower, or do whatever is
necessary to get awake. I have
never seen statistics on spiritual
consistency, but morning joggers
have a much better chance of
keeping the routine than those who
jog later in the day.
If we are not able to rise
early and pray, we need a
conversion of priorities which
might come from a retreat or a
vow. Before we become consistent,
we must decide to keep trying
until we become consistent.
It is best to get in the whole
prayer time; but if we can't pray all
of it, can we pray for 10 or even
3 minutes? If we are successful in
getting our foot in the door, we
might be able to invite ourselves
in.
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Falling Asleep:
A common problem among us is to
get up early to pray, but we fall
back asleep during the prayer
time. It doesn't matter how
peaceful we feel when we wake;
sleeping is not praying, and it
does not constitute the
consistency we need to advance in
our
spiritual journey.
There are several solutions,
but some are better than others.
We can pray with a posture that
does not allow sleep. For example,
it is difficult to sleep standing
or pacing, but it might be
difficult to meditate as well. In
particular, pacing will usually
stimulate distractions, but as we
begin the spiritual journey, we
are usually distracted anyway.
A painful sitting posture might
be effective, but a couple of
conditions need to be met: We need
to be able to feel God in the
pain, and the pain should not
cause permanent damage.
If we are beginners, we might
try reading the Bible, saying the
rosary, or some other more active
method to stay awake. As we
advance, we will need to use
meditation to launch into
contemplation, and these methods
will not be as effective. On the
other hand, they can be mixed with
meditation to get the same results
as meditation.
An electronic gadget that
sounds an alarm when we start
falling asleep can also be
effective. These devices can be
found in many drug stores, and
they were originally sold to keep
drivers alert. They normally have
a switch closure (usually a
gravity activated mercury switch)
when the head tilts down. This
gadget tends to be the best
solution for most people with this
problem (highly recommended).
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Oversleeping:
Another problem we have all had
is sleeping too long. When we
oversleep, we can't just skip the
prayer time. We need to make some
hard decisions and plans to get it
in. It is a matter of having the
right priority. We don't want to
go so far as to get fired from our
job, but we do want to skip meals
and reschedule appointments to
allow us to meet with God.
We may need to undertake some
penance to call attention to our
spiritual need. For some people,
it might be appropriate to fast
from food until the prayer time is
over, and most of us will not want
to read the newspaper or watch TV
until we have had our time with
God.
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Chronic Interference:
Sometimes we nearly establish
consistency, but some sort of
persistent interference keeps us
from our prayer time. Relatives
are a common culprit. For example,
your mother comes for an extended
stay. She has insomnia, and she
wants to talk to the first person
who gets up. She can't see how
sitting silently in a chair can be
construed as prayer.
Of course, there are a number of
ways to handle these situations.
The best approach is to simply be
honest. We should tell them we are
praying, and we prefer silence. If
they can't or won't honor our
wishes, we can be sneaky. For
example, we can pretend to be
reading something from work that
is very important. If they
interrupt, we can tell them we
will be with them in a few
minutes.
If we keep trying, nearly
everyone will respect our wishes.
Our relatives might ridicule us,
but after they determine we are
too much trouble to bother, we
will be left alone.
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Big Problems:
Our lives and the world around
us are far from perfect. While we
might believe ourselves to be
praying in some secret, sacred
seclusion, we are actually making
big waves with significant living
forces. Some of these forces are
evil and others are good. When we
rock the boat, our lives are can
be reordered in ways that we don't
appreciate.
It is only natural to blame God
for these divorces, bankruptcies,
deaths, and other vicissitudes of
life, but we can't let ourselves
become so discouraged that we
despair. If we are to be like
Jesus, we have to be faithful to
God until our death.
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Constancy:
Without taking up the subject of
constancy, we
would like to look at the link
between consistency and constancy.
The more we keep our minds on
God, the more we will value
consistency. When we do not have
prayer times everyday, it will
still be worth our while to get as
many prayer times in as possible.
With our
intelligent recursion, these
inconsistent prayer times will not
take us on the
spiritual journey, but
they will build a prayerful
background for us to work from.
For example, some of us are
afraid to be alone with our
thoughts. These inconsistent
prayer times will be helpful with
these fears. When our fears are
holding us back, prayers of
inner healing are
especially appropriate. The
spiritual journey will almost
always begin with inner healing.
Any grudges or bad feelings that
we have for other people need to
be resolved, and inner healing can
be instrumental to this process.
Even when we don't have
consistency, we can still long for
consistency. To put this another
way, the first step toward
establishing consistency is
wanting consistency.
The more that we practice
constancy, the more that we will
value consistency. In other words,
if we are going to hang things on
our walls, hang religious
articles. If we feel that we have
to watch TV, we should watch
religious videos and stations.
Each time that we are reminded of
God, we try to remember to long
for consistency.
All good things always work together; so any
good thing will bring us closer to
consistency. With this in mind, we
should go to church every chance
we get. We should exercise every
opportunity to Adore the Blessed
Sacrament. We should tithe and
practice spiritual and corporal
works of mercy. As we do these
things, and others like them, we
will begin to value consistency.
If we have something in our life
that keeps us from praying, we
might attach a discipline to it.
For example, let us suppose a
business man can not pray every
day because his business would
suffer too much. Assuming that he
is in business to make money, he
might begin tithing, then it would
be easier to justify praying since
10% of what he is working for is
going to God.
The key here is to take a look at
the appetite that is more
important than God (in this
example money), and to try to do
things that work on that appetite.
Tithing or any alms giving will
tend to make money seem less
important to the person giving the
money.
To put this another way, tithing
will bring a person closer to
consistency, and consistency will
bring a person closer to tithing.
When we stand before God in the
Final Judgement, God will not be
looking at the profit and loss
statments from our businesses.
In a more general sense, any good
thing (such as a kind word to someone who
is down and out) will bring a
person closer to tithing,
consistency, and all other good
things, and any bad thing will
bring a person closer to bad
things (and further away from all
good things). For example, a
failure to be charitable will
bring a person closer to stealing.
All good things go together, and
all bad things go together. We can
use this concept to prepare a
strategy to become more consistent
in our prayer time.
For example we could prepare a
personal inventory of things that
we do as we go through the day.
This inventory is not meant to be
some sort of feel good or bad self
reflection, rather it should be
taken in an analytical, objective,
or cold blooded sort of way. Once
we have the list, we write down
beside each listed item why we are
doing it.
Each reason for doing something
would be further processed to some
attribute. For example, washing
dishes could be associated with
cleanliness. Watching television
is usually associated with things
that are not from God, but it
sometimes has merit.
The key to this exercise is to
think about what we do and why we
do it. While society might approve
of an activity, God might not (or
vice versa). For example, Saint
John Vianney complained that
people often do well throughout
their lives, but then, they fall
on their sword of retirement. He
has a point. We can't expect to
spend the last 20 years of our
life taking it easy and expect to
be saved, because it gives our
ungodly appetites too much time to
become important to us.
Regardless of our current
circumstances, we need to find a
way to serve God by serving each
other with most of our day. By
reflecting on each activity of the
day, we can determine where we can
make improvements in our day. By
making the day more uplifting, we
can string together day after day
where we are constantly improving.
The way that yesterday was spent
will have a big influence on
whether we will begin today with a
prayer time, and yesterday's focus
(or distraction) will carry into
any prayer time we have today. If
we reflect on the day's activities
before we retire, we will
eventually determine how we can
make improvement; because God is
going to honor any effort of this
nature. For our part, our lives
will gradually continue to improve
to where are best prayer time will
usually have been the last prayer
time we had. It is impossible for
it to occur in any other way.
Many books on time management will
tell us to plan the next day
before we retire. While some of
this is okay, especially for
things we need to do early the
next day, we need to be careful to
not let our agenda take priority
over our identity. We are called
to be participants in
relationships (our identity), and
we are not called to be automatons
that are preprogrammed the night
before to carry out some duty the
next day (our agenda).
Most time management books our
written for business people, but
in any circumstance, we will do
better by placing relationships
ahead of time. There are only
several ways to increase
productivity, but worker
productivity is only increased by
making the worker more productive.
A key part of worker productivity
is to have the right person in the
right job. For example, 80% of the
sales will come from 20% of the
salespeople, and 80% of the
designs will come from 20% of the
engineers. The corporate executive
is not likely to hire the next
productive salesperson or engineer
without having a good relationship
with the current people who are
highly productive. Hiring is only
the beginning of benefits that
relationships offer.
The moral to all of this, is that
we need a plan, but the plan
should not be put ahead of either
people or God. In fact, the plan
should emerge from our
relationships, but we should be
careful to not plan during our
prayer time.
In the words of Mike Tyson,
"Everyone has a plan until they
get hit." In other words, everyone
seeks execution, and the plan is
just the beginning of the
execution. Our relationships play
the primary role in how effective
we are at execution.
Our relationships with others is
no better than our relationship
with God. We do our best,
therefore, when we think about and
relate to God during the day. This
kind of activity makes us the most
effective today, but it also leads
us to consistency which opens the
door to the infinite possibilities
of the spiritual journey.
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Deny Appetites:
Inside each of us, there are
billions of voices, opinions,
attitudes, and other intellectual
attributes vying to influence our
consciousness. The eventual person
we become is the product of these
voices and our choices.
An intellectual attribute can
only ascend to the consciousness
through internal processes. In
some cases, our basic instincts
coordinate the internal processes
so fast that it seems as if an
external message or stimulus
reaches our consciousness, but we
always elect our thoughts. In
other words, a sensual feeling
might be so strong that we feel as
if our free will is violated, but
we always have control. For
example if we touch something that
is too hot, we might reflexively
pull away. We can, however, train
our reflexes which demonstrates
the mastery of our free will.
The more we think or feel an
internal process, the easier we
can get to the same place the next
time. This is why consistency is
so important, and with the denial
of appetites, the same phenomenon
will have the opposite affect.
When the consciousness
experiences an intelligence, the
intelligence will gain more
permanence if we act upon the
intelligence. In a negative
example, a lustful thought will
cause some damage, but a sexual
act will cause substantially more.
In a positive experience, we could
feel the presence of God, but it
will have a greater effect if we
act upon the feeling. For example,
if the spiritual feeling prompts
us to tithe, our spiritual
feelings will come more easily
after we tithe.
We will tend to gravitate
towards those choices that produce
the most delight. We might be
tempted to think that the best
feelings are sinful, but the
denial of appetites should be much
more than giving up sinful
cravings.
Our penance should always have
a death and resurrection theme.
While we die to sin, we long for
God. Too often, people deny sin
and try to resist the temptation
to sin again. This is usually a
losing battle and always a lost
war. The victory comes from our
relationship with God (not from
our will power).
While we should always resist
sin, we should strive for a balance
between spiritual delight and
holy penance. In other words, the
more we can feel God, the more
penance we should do. When we deny
sinful appetites, we leave a void
in our delight. We need to have
the relationship with God, to
allow God to fill the void.
The amount of penance that we
do should never be an achievement.
The comforts we give up free us
from distractions that cloud our
feeling of God.
When we have a losing
perspective, we see penance as
losing something we like. We
should have a prospective attitude
towards penance that we would have
if we were hoping to find
something of great value.
For example, Saint Jean Vianney
performed heavy penances for
greater spiritual clarity to
perform his vocation. We often
hear of his extreme penances, but
his sprititual advice on penance
is more important for us to know.
He advised people to not to do
penance that would interfere with
their work. When one of the
ladies of his parish, Catherine,
was told that she should not fast
during Lent, she complained that
he did penance. He told her he was
allowed to do penance because it
didn't interfere with his work. On
other occasions, his parishioners
told him that he should eat more,
but he told them he did a better
job in the confessional when he
fasted.
Most of us have many secular
appetites that hinder our
spirituality. In fact, the
lifestyle that many of us live is
often inconsistent with the
penitential posture that the
spiritual journey requires. The
category of desires that distract
us from our duty are the ones we
want to mine first with penance.
For example, many of us can not
establish consistency because we
can not find the time to pray, but
the average adult American watches
4.57 hours of television each day
(US Census Bureau for 2004). More
than 9 people in 10 can find the
time needed to establish
consistency in prayer by watching
less television.
In the tradition of the Church,
prayer and penance usually go
together. For example, how can we
spend more time in prayer without
taking time away from some other
activity? Since penance is denying
a desire, it is emotionally and
physically uncomfortable, but the
discomfort is a sign that the
normal course of affairs has been
upset. When business is not as
usual, there is excess energy
which can be used as an agent of
change.
To put this another way, pain
is the ability to change.
Bodybuilders have to change their
body to make progress, and they
are notorious for coining the
cliche, "no pain no gain."
Pain does not necessarily mean
that we will change for the
better, but it is the opportunity
to change. The possessed man in
the Bible, who had the demon named
Legion, practiced regular
mortification, but the goal was to
get worse.
If there is a conscious effort
(such as prayer) to get better,
served along side the pain of
penance, the normal course of
affairs can be altered in a
positive (and sometimes in a
profound) way. Hence, the Church
tradition has an exceptionally
strong basis, and it has produced
many Saints.
By taking this outlook, we can
see some of the necessity for Jesus
dying on a cross. The amount of
emotional and physical pain could
hardly be greater. Since He was
both God and man, the sacrifice
could negotiate a new reality
between Heaven and earth, but the
pain was necessary. Since we still
remain in sin, our redemption
needs to imitate the path of our
Redeemer. Jesus told us to take up
our cross and follow Him. In other
words, both penance and prayer our
necessary.
In our hedonistic society,
penance is often the magical
missing ingredient that makes all
the difference.
Some would argue (probably not
a corporate manager) that change is
possible without pain. For
example, a 120 pound woman can go
to 200 pounds with very little
pain. In this case, there would be
other things that are missed by
gaining this weight, and the
woman's health would not be as
good which would cause her pain.
We could still argue, however,
that the pain wasn't proportional
to the amount of change. Let's
look at this kind of change in a
little different way.
Within the cosmopolitan
appetites of the busy market
(portrayed above as normal
recursion), the merchants tend to
grow rich if the market is not
disturbed (little change). The fat
is just the recursion storing a
little away for a rainy day. It is
not represenative of a change of
appetite. In contrast, the
bodybuilder's extra mass came from
perfoming work outside his body.
The body reordered itself to
achieve a new goal, and therefore,
pain was necessary.
Voluntary poverty is a form of
penance that helps us to deny
appetites. While this penance
might seem like repulsive insanity
to many in our material world, the
happiest people who ever lived,
the Saints, practiced it in an
almost universal way across many
eras and cultures. The Saints
would tell us that they did not
want to be encumbered by things
that were not necessary. After
all, the extra things to us has
the same impact that the fat has
to the woman in the example above.
There isn't anything specifically
wrong with the fat, but if it is
not used, what is its affect on
us? The fat affects us in many
ways.
Fat is like having too many
possessions, and these things
separate us from our neighbor
which make us less responsive to
the life that is all around us.
When we are too rich our community
does not pull together because
another person's problem does not
impact us. It is no longer our
problem, and it becomes their
problem. The impact on the
community is to lessen it
effectiveness (equivalent to the
community's intelligence), and the
same thing happens inside an
individual who is too fat.
Furthermore, people who live in
dysfunctional communities are
disadvantaged and less able. Lean,
responsive, and empathetic
communities are healthier and more
capable.
When a society has too many
possessions, it will not be as
operative. People will care about
each other less. There will be
more of a momentum to maintain
status quo. The needs of the
underprivileged are less likely to
be met. The rich will tend to get
richer and die in (often from)
their excess. The poor will suffer
from want.
In these rich societies, the
richer members have the higher
rates of suicide which indicates
they are not happy and adjusted.
For we can not think highly of
ourselves without thinking highly
of others.
In modern society, the common
technique is to exchange voluntary
poverty with deductive poverty.
This substitution prevents us from
reaching spiritual poverty. This
is sort of a play on words; so
let's go back and explain each
poverty.
Voluntary poverty is what we could
see the Saints practicing. Two
giant champions (although more
than a hundred could be named)
were Saints Colette and Clair who
tried to get the Franciscan order
to follow the ideals of Saint
Francis of Assisi (the founder of
the Franciscan order). The
Franciscan ideal was to live the
Gospel message in a way that the
mendicant (sort of a spiritual
beggar) did not hold much property
either individually or in common.
In this way, the Franciscan was
completely dependent upon God (Who
usually worked through the charity
of others).
Deductive poverty can be found in
modern man trying to justify his
wealth. The deductive reasoning is
taken from Jesus who said that no
one could serve two masters. The
modern man then theoretically
assumes that God is more important
to him than his possessions. For
example, the modern man might
imagine his house on the left and
Jesus on the right. Then in this
day dream he goes to the right
(toward Jesus). Therefore, he
reasons that his possessions have
no hold on him.
We are much more complex than
deductive poverty assumes. In the
first place, we should not attempt
to judge ourselves because we are
not Jesus, and secondly, either
possible outcome is dysfunctional.
If the outcome is positive, it
only reinforces our laziness and
robs our initiative. As Jesus put
it (at least several times), the
self-righteous do not try to
reform. If the outcome is
negative, we have a better chance
of turning back to God. We could
never, however, condone a choice
that elects possessions over God.
For this choice displays a sheer
poverty of faith, hope, and love.
We will need to practice virtue to
build the relationship with God
that our salvation requires. It is
foolish to practice deductive
poverty.
We can be rich and saved, if we,
among other things, meet the needs
of the poor and avoid luxuriant
living. As everyone knows, the
needs of the poor are so great
that no one could ever meet them,
but we can be good stewards with
our money. Then we are left with
two subject terms: good
stewardship and luxuriant living.
We can't be good stewards to the
poor unless we stand in solidarity
with them. We need to practice a
caring empathy that disallows
agnostic ignorance. As a matter of
spiritual competence, we should
give of ourselves along with our
money. In other words, we should
work for the poor as much as we
care for ourselves, and we should
practice the same due diligence in
our giving as we do in our
investing.
Luxuriant living exercises those
appetites which draw us away from
God. The appetites we indulge
become the dominant voices within
us. Is it any wonder that richer
communities are more selfish? If
we are rich, we can't be idle. We
must have an active ministry that
serves the poor to save us from
luxurious distractions. As Saint
Vincent de Paul put it, we must
establish a goal of increasing the
quality and quantity of service to
the poor, and this goal can only
be met through commitment and
sacrifice. While luxuriant living
will draw us toward deadly
distractions, our service toward
the poor will exercise those
appetites that draw us toward God.
If we are unable to establish
consistency, it is because we are
distracted. After we establish
consistency, the quality of the
spiritual experience will be
determined by how much we are not
distracted. The lack of
distractions is what a person
seeks by entering into a
cloistered monastery, but our
internal appetites (not external
events) are the sources of our
distractions.
As far as deep prayer is
concerned, voluntary poverty is
optional, but internal or
spiritual poverty is not. In other
words, we can't go far along the
spiritual journey while exercising
the wrong appetites because we
will have too many distractions.
All of this will become painfully
obvious as we try to incorporate
the feedback system in the focus
section. Saint Catherine of Siena
and Saint Teresa of Avila are
among many others who complained
of the discomfort caused at the
beginning of the prayer time as
focus was being established.
Spiritual poverty (which is
championed by many Saints but Saint
John of the Cross stands out) is a
step toward contemplation of God.
When the person reaches spiritual
poverty (in deep prayer), the only
desire or thought is for God
because there is a preoccupation
with God.
These periods of spiritual poverty
involve our whole being. It is an
active exercise of virtue in our
soul, heart, and mind. As in the
"Song of Songs", it is a quietness
that engages the divine
relationship. Spiritual poverty is
the springboard to contemplation.
Spiritual poverty is the opposite
of being distracted. Deep prayer
can't occur with regularity,
unless we practice spiritual
poverty. While it might be
appropriate for God to meddle in
our distractions in certain
circumstances, our freedom would
be violated by regular
interruptions. We can't expect a
relationship to be forced upon us
against our will. Love must be
freely chosen.
Voluntary poverty is an astute
step towards spiritual poverty,
but spiritual poverty actually
demands the denial of
distractions. Our possessions,
aspirations, relationships, or any
of many other things can distract
us from seeking the pearl of great
price which costs us everything we
have. We were put on this earth to
love God with our whole heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and
anything else is a lie that robs
us our identity, happiness, and
salvation.
How much money, esteem, comfort,
or success we have has little to
do with our happiness because we
were not made for those things.
When we go through the day, we
should constantly question the
motives behind our experiences and
activities. As Saint John Vianney
put it, the sinner should watch
for sin as close as a fugitive
watches for the police.
We don't have to change appetites
to build consistency, but we do
need to try to deny distracting
appetites.
For many of us, denying appetites
can be extremely burdensome as
well. We should not pick a load
that is so heavy that we can not
carry it. It is better to try to
reign in one or two or our more
distracting appetites, and we
should attempt to avoid any new
appetites. The more complicated
that we make our lives, the harder
time we will have in building
consistency. Simplicity is an
attribute of God, while complexity
is a sequel of sin. As we make our
lives more simple, we our making
room for God.
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Practice Humility:
It is often overlooked, but a
primary reason for failing to
establish consistency is that we
are too involved with our own
life. Of course, if we don't
establish consistency, most of
God's vision for us will never be
realized. Our actions can convict
us of thinking more of ourselves
than we do of God. It is no wonder
that the Beatitudes play a central
role in the New Testament message.
In theory, we should never
compare ourselves to anyone else,
but in practice we are always
making comparisons. For many of
us, our happiness is determined by
how well we compare to other
people. All of this is sheer
vanity that distracts us from our
calling. No comparison is either
necessary or valid. We are not any
better or worse than anyone else
because we all share the same
Creator.
When we awake in the morning and
as we attempt prayer, we will have
more distractions if we are
worried about what we want. If our
ego becomes more important than
our spirituality, our entire
prayer time will become a planning
session for the day.
We hear God's calling through our
ego. Without a sincere effort to
reduce our ego, we can easily
confuse the divine call with our
own wants. It is also possible to
mix the two together. While
spiritual direction might help,
there is no substitute for
humility.
If we don't strive to put our
relationship with God above
everything else, we will have a
difficult time with consistency
because so many other pressing
matters will confront us. We must
decrease if we want God to
increase.
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Avoid Anger:
A vital part of going into deep
prayer is controlling
distractions, and there are few
distractions more annoying than
anger.
When dealing with anger, people
often quote Jesus turning over the
money changers tables. The idea is
that anger can be righteous. What
Jesus did was to take action
against an ongoing sin. He was not
mad at the money changers; He was
intolerant of the sin. He did not
stomp off mad or apologize for His
outburst; He stayed and defended
his actions. Jesus saw His action
as a Holy crusade. So, it is not
very accurate to use this episode
of our Savior's life as a
justification of our anger unless
we are on a Holy crusade, and in
that case anger is not a problem.
As far as deep prayer is
concerned, a better scripture
passage is where Jesus tells us to
leave off praying until we have
reconciled with our neighbor.
Anger can be like a festering
sore, and it requires
inner healing.
It is hard to imagine a person who
would not need inner healing at
the beginning of the spiritual
journey. Deep prayer will natural
bring about much of the needed
inner healing, but we can speed
this process by doing the inner
healing separately.
In terms of anger, we will have to
become reconciled with everyone
before we go very far with deep
prayer. Regardless of how bad the
relationship was, we need to go
back to the feelings of the
relationship and feel God along
with the relationship.
For example, a man may be angry
that he was sexually molested by a
relative when he was a boy. There
would probably be many feelings
that would need to be corrected by
inner healing. In addition, the
man would need to forgive the
relative, and after carrying the
anger for a long time, inner
healing may be required before the
forgiveness process could begin.
The goal would be for the man to
feel the presence of the relative
and be comfortable with the
feeling. Jesus gives us an inner
peace, and we need some of His
peace before we can successfully
reach
spiritual poverty.
Besides resolving our past
anger, we must be careful not to
become so angry with the present
that it takes away our peace. Our
goal is not peace, but we must be
able to focus on God. It is easy
to become so embroiled with an
ongoing conflict that the conflict
becomes our focus.
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