Yesterday I posted some suggestions for how to intensify your prayer life during Lent, which starts next Wednesday. Today I’d like to make some suggestions in the area of fasting.

Fasting, of course, gets the most press during Lent. I think everyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, knows the practice of “giving up” something for Lent. Often it involves some sweet or other small delicacy. These are good ideas, but it is also good to sometimes think “outside the box” so that our fasting does not become routine. Furthermore, I personally think it a good idea to think of how much fasting we can handle, then resolve to do just a little bit more than that for Lent. God is generous with us, and I believe He will reward the heart that strives after Him.

But first we must remember the heart of fasting, and to do this, we look to Jesus:

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you. (Matthew 6: 16-18)

Fasting is the practice of piety most likely to abused. If we tell everyone about our fasting, we have clearly broken the Lord’s command. However, if we keep it secret, there is the danger that we will have spiritual pride inside, thinking we are “more holy” than others who appear to give up less than we do. The fact is that fasting should only make us humble, as it reminds us how dependent we are.

Now, on to some practical suggestions:

1) Give up TV.
Yes, I know I might be a one-trick pony when it comes to giving up TV, but I can’t overemphasize how helpful it has been to me. I gave up TV for Advent one year and never looked back. So try to give up TV for all of Lent, or, if you don’t think you can do that, give it up a few days a week.

2) No Internet one or two days a week.
I recognize that the Internet has become a vital part of life today (my job, for example, depends on it), so I won’t suggest giving up the Internet completely (although if you can, God bless you). But try to pick a day or two a week in which you completely stay off the web.

3) Complete Fast once a week
The Church asks us to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. Consider fasting as well every Friday. What exactly is “fasting”? I think each person must define it based on their personal situation, but the Church’s overall guideline is good: two very small meals plus one regular meal.

4) No Caffeine
If a large number of people followed this one, I’m sure we would have a lot of cranky people out there by the 2nd week of Lent. But seriously, if you are addicted to caffeine, Lent is a great time to kick the habit. It is not only physically beneficial, but by offering your physical sufferings in union with Christ’s, it can be spiritually beneficial as well.

5) Drink only water
I did this one year, and I found it quite difficult. Make water the only thing you drink during Lent – no soda, no coffee, no orange juice. The reason I liked this one is it is a constant reminder; every day you probably have some non-water drink with a meal or during a break, so limiting yourself to water is a good reminder of the penitential season we are in.

Tomorrow: almsgiving!

It is a week until Ash Wednesday, so we all need to be thinking about how we can grow spiritually during the beautiful season of Lent. The Church asks us to engage in more intense prayer, fasting and almsgiving as ways to prepare ourselves for the glorious feast of Easter. I wanted to give some of my own suggestions for how we can intensify our spiritual life in these areas during Lent. I’ll begin with prayer.

The model for all three practices is found in Matthew 6. Let us keep these words of Christ in mind whenever we pray:

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test,
but deliver us from the evil one.
If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
(Matthew 6:5-14)

Some practical suggestions:

1) Daily Mass
Try to go to Mass at least one more time a week than you currently do. There is no greater prayer we can participate in. Furthermore, I have found that every time I added a day to my routine for Mass, I kept going that day after Lent ended.

2) Read the Gospel
Take 5-10 minutes in the morning to read the Gospel passage for the day and then reflect on it. We are called to be Christ-like, and there is no better way to know what Christ is like than the Gospels.

3) Liturgy of the Hours
As Catholics, we do not believe that we are being saved alone. We in fact are being saved as a body, and the Liturgy of the Hours is a beautiful way to join that body in prayer. And the great thing is that you can do it anytime of the day. Try to add one of the following to your routine: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, or Night Prayer. Each of them only takes about 10-15 minutes, and the power of this form of prayer is that it forms your intentions to the intentions of the Church.

4) Rosary
I’ve often extolled the power of the Rosary. Lent is a great time to get into the habit of praying the Rosary. I guarantee that you won’t regret it.

5) Family Prayer
The cliché that holds true is that “the family that prays together, stays together”. Too many families either don’t pray together or they only do so before meals. But family prayer is a powerful way to deeply unite the family. Find a time each day to pray together as a family; you can combine this with one of the above: go to daily Mass together, say Night Prayer together or pray the Rosary as a family.

Whatever you choose to do (and please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments if you wish), just be sure to do something. And don’t get discouraged if you forget a few times the first few weeks of Lent; we all do. That is just a reminder to get back up and try again.

In the next two days I’ll add suggestions for fasting and almsgiving as well.

The other day I blogged about the importance of silence in our lives. Imagine my surprise when I find Oprah of all people agreeing with me:

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Nuns on the Importance of Silence and Reflection

You can see more videos of the Dominican Sisters of Mary on the Oprah show here and here.

Maybe now I can get booked on her show when my book comes out…

Today, as we all know, environmentalism is a huge political issue. Many are advocating for new laws, new regulations and new rules in order to “protect the environment”, while many others are claiming that there is little need for these laws as the environmental situation is either not as bad as advertised or simply a hoax. Christians today fall on both sides of this issue.

But one thing I think too many Christians ignore is the terrible spiritual impact modern consumerism has on us. Regardless of the impact on the environment, rampant consumerism – as is practiced in the Western world today – is destroying our souls.

And the evidence that our world is relentlessly consumerist cannot be denied. During the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia Pope Benedict noted that, “reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are… scars which mark the surface of our earth… in order to fuel an insatiable consumption“. Some of the extent of that insatiable consumption can be seen in this slideshow:

Portraits of Consumption: Visualizing the Statistics of Waste in America

Some statistics from that slideshow:

• 60,000 plastic bags are used in the U.S. every 5 seconds.
• 2 million plastic beverage bottles are used in the U.S. every 5 minutes.
• 1 million plastic cups are used on airline flights in the U.S. every 6 hours.
• 170,000 disposable batteries are produced every 15 minutes.
• 426,000 cell phones are retired every day in the U.S.
• 106,000 aluminum cans are used in the U.S. every 30 seconds.

One does not have to be an environmentalist to recognize the poverty of such wasteful living. But what is the Christian response to such flagrant consumerism? Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church says, “Christian asceticism”. This does not mean living in a cave, but instead “It’s the ability to regulate one’s consumption and the condition of one’s heart, and win a victory over passions and instincts. It is important that the rich and the poor alike possess these qualities.”

Patriarch Kirill further notes the terrible spiritual impact of this inability to regulate our consumption: “The trinkets of modern life make one giddy, and inebriate the human consciousness. People believe in advertisement, fashion, stereotypes, and this virtual world as if it were reality.” We end up living with a consumerist mentality in which we are only satisfied with more “stuff”, and the only thing that can truly satisfy us – God alone – is shoved aside in the endless quest for more and more things.

Let us pray that we might only strive to find satisfaction in God rather than the trinkets of this world.

St. Francis, pray for us!

As everyone knows, we got a little snow here in the DC area this weekend. About 30″ worth. I work at home and my kids are homeschooled, so such large amounts of snow don’t really affect our daily routine. But one of the things I love about the snow is the silence it brings. Not only does the snow dampen all surrounding noise, but it also dramatically diminishes the traffic, which leads to more silence.

Holy Cross Abbey, Berryville, VA

Yesterday morning I was out early shoveling my driveway and quite enjoying this silence. Then my neighbor came out to shovel his driveway, wearing an ipod. The volume was so loud that I could hear every word of the song he was listening to (and to make matters worse, it was a Duran Duran song. Ugh). It got me to thinking about how noisy our world is today. From ipods to radios to TVs to the Internet, we have a device with us at all times which will push some noise into our ears. And the biggest danger of all this noise is that it drowns out the still, small voice of God.

God is the Lord of all Creation and He is the Alpha and the Omega. With one Word He can create and destroy. Yet He is a low-talker. We can only hear Him if we are silent.

What are some practical ways in which we can make our lives more silent? Here are seven I thought up:

1) Turn off the car radio.
For many of us, the car radio is always in one position: ON. We can’t imagine driving somewhere without listening to either music or talk radio. But in all honesty, is there anything you listen to in the car that is that important? Would not that time in the car be a great time to reflect on life?

2) Get up early.
Too often we get up and are immediately rushing around to get out the door. But what if we got up 15 or 30 minutes before usual and spent that time in silence, perhaps meditating on the Gospel for the day? Early morning is the quietest time of the day, both externally and internally.

3) Abstain from media once a week.
I have mentioned before that I abstain from the Internet once a week. Another thing we can do to bring silence into our lives is to abstain from all media – radio, ipod, TV, Internet – for a day (Sunday being a natural choice). Just spend an entire day with the only noise being other human beings you are in physical contact with. It seems radical, but is it really so hard to comprehend?

4) Turn off the “background” TV.
Many people have a TV in their kitchen or workshop which they have on in the background while they do some other task, such as preparing dinner or working on a project. However, one of the best times to focus your thoughts is when you are active with monotonous work. This is the tried and true method of monks, and it can work for those outside the monastery as well.

5) Take a hike.
Something I only discovered a few years ago is the silence of nature. Going on a hike in the woods – sans ipod – is a wonderful way to clear your head of the noise of the modern world.

6) Go on a retreat.
Every Christian should go on retreat on a regular basis. In the Catholic tradition, retreat usually means “silent retreat”. I have found that when I go on retreat it takes me a whole evening just to “detox” from the pace and noise of the world. But once I do, I am able to more clearly hear the voice of the Lord in my life.

7) Pray the rosary.
Really, any prayer will do, but praying the rosary is a particularly “silent” prayer. I have found nothing that is better for focusing my thoughts and allowing me to listen for the voice of the Lord.

Whatever you choose to do, try to find time every day for silence, for it is then that you are most likely to hear the most wondrous noise of all: the voice of the Lord.

Yesterday, I mentioned in a post the importance of being “counter-cultural”. I can’t think of a greater way to be counter-cultural in our pleasure-first, narcissistic world than to practice corporal mortification, something which apparently Pope John Paul II did. This revelation about JPII (which really shouldn’t be very surprising) has raised the typical bewildered reactions from most people. Why in the world would someone voluntarily choose to sleep on the floor and even to whip himself?

Although the practice of corporal mortification has a long history in the Church, it is practically unheard of today. But it is simply one (albeit severe) type of self-mortification, which every Christian should practice in one form or another. Self-mortification is denying yourself some legitimate good in order to offer it in union with Christ’s suffering on the Cross. When your mom or dad said to you growing up, “offer it up!” that was self-mortification. We have been called to take up our own crosses, so denial of pleasure is part and parcel of the Christian life.

Mortification was central to the life of the early Christian. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 gives a litany of hardships he has endured to preach the Gospel, and being a Christian for the first 300 years after Christ’s death meant living a mortified life leading possibly to a martyred death. But all of this mortification was not usually actively chosen, but simply a result of being a Christian.

After the legalization of Christianity, many Christians wanted to find ways to imitate Christ’s and Paul’s sufferings in their own lives. So many Christians – starting with St. Antony of the Desert – chose to engage in practices to mortify the flesh. By doing so, they desired to both be intimately united to Christ’s sufferings, and also to master their fleshly desires. This is the beginning of self-mortification among Christians: mortification freely chosen for spiritual benefits.

Today there are many ways to practice self-mortification which don’t involve anything like whipping oneself or other severe practices. One of the best ways to do so is at the dinner table. Turning down seconds, not putting butter on your bread, and drinking water instead of soda are all small mortifications which can be offered in union with Christ’s Passion for others. Another way of mortifying oneself is to allow others to get their way in small things. You are beat tired but your kid wants you to read to him when you get home from work? Denying yourself your desire for legitimate rest in this instance is another type of mortification. Other examples include fasting, taking cold showers, getting up early each day or even putting a pebble in your shoe.

But of course corporal mortification gets the most press, as it is the most severe type of self-mortification. Examples of corporal mortification include the “discipline” (i.e. whipping oneself), wearing a cilice, or wearing a hairshirt. These are all traditional – and legitimate – forms of self-mortification which saints have engaged in for centuries. But one important word of caution: NEVER UNDERTAKE CORPORAL MORTIFICATION EXCEPT UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR! I can’t emphasize this enough; not doing so could lead to health problems as well as spiritual pride and an unhealthy masochism.

But we all should engage in some type of regular self-mortification. Discovering the mortifications that JPII underwent is a great incentive to us to take up our own small crosses in our lives and unite them to the Great Cross of Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls.

Any Catholic who has been involved with Internet discussions knows that they can often become quite heated. Topics both serious and mundane are debated ad nauseum, and often personal attacks flare up even in supposed “Catholic” circles. This confrontational aspect of Internet discussions is often lamented, but I do not think such debates are completely irredeemable. It is only through debate that ideas are properly formed and developed; I know that my own views and opinions have been largely formed over the years by engaging with others who do not agree with me.

However, I too often see a line that is crossed that I believe moves from profitable debate to dangerous sin. It is the practice of disparaging someone’s intentions instead of just challenging his viewpoint.

For example, a while back a bishop decided to suppress the Latin Mass in his diocese due to fears of the spread of the swine flu (via communion on the tongue). One can strongly disagree with this action (as I did) and can argue why such an action is both unnecessary and against the traditions of the Church. However, I actually saw the following statement made at another forum:

“I think he was looking for a way of suppressing a liturgy he finds obnoxious, over the objections (indeed, the specific directions) of the Holy See.”

This clearly crosses the line from legitimate disagreement to what I would call “spiritual murder”. Why do I use such a strong term? Because such a statement accuses the person in question of not just making a bad decision, but of willfully rejecting legitimate traditions and authority in the Church. This is tantamount to accusing him of rejecting the Church, which is the same as rejecting Christ. And rejecting Christ is spiritual death.

Unfortunately, this reading of people’s intentions happens all too often, and it is especially common in religious and political debates. If one disagrees with us, we assume the worst intentions on their part; after all, if they don’t agree with us, they obviously have bad intentions, right? Yet the truth is that often other people simply see things differently with the best of intentions or that they are just plain ignorant of all the facts.

Now, does this mean that no one has bad intentions? Of course not. Due to our fallen natures, all of us have bad intentions at times (and yet we always want people to assume the best of intentions from us). I would argue that it is much better to assume good intentions and be wrong than to assume bad intentions and be right. What does it hurt if we assume someone has good intentions for their misguided actions? We still can oppose their actions vigorously, and our arguments will actually be stronger for focusing on the ideas being promoted, not the people who promote them.

We are supposed to judge ideas, not persons. It is God who will judge a person’s intentions, for only He can truly read their hearts.

Recently, Pope Benedict in his World Day of Peace message stated the following: “Technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency” (emphasis added). Instead of actually contemplating the Pope’s words, many Americans immediately tried to push the Pope into our political categories, with the following results:

- Those who are politically conservative either ignored the Pope’s words completely or wrote it off as an European eccentricity of Pope Benedict, despite the fact that Pope Benedict has clearly shown he is not beholden to any European “conventional wisdom”.

- Those who are politically liberal hailed this prophetic statement of the Pope as a defense of any and every government response intended to protect the environment.

However, both responses are faulty, as it tries to put the Pope into categories which he resolutely refuses to fall into. B16′s advice is not primarily political, but instead spiritual, as he understands that every political problem has underlying spiritual roots. The pope desires true solutions; in other words, he desires to see everyone strive to live as saints. Living a “more sober lifestyle” is another way of saying that our modern consumerist lifestyle, which is lived equally by both conservatives or liberals, is antithetical to Gospel living.

What people often don’t realize is that striving to live as a saint will actually make you more environmentally-friendly as well. Just look at the three traditional practices of piety and their impact on the environment:

Prayer: Do you pray more than you watch TV every day? How about more than you play video games or mindlessly surf the Internet? Those other activities all require electrical power, whereas prayer’s power source is the Holy Spirit, which is an infinite, renewable source of (spiritual) energy. And you don’t even need electrical lights when you pray – candles are much more conducive to a contemplative mood.

Fasting: We Americans are anything but sober when it comes to eating. To put it simply, we are McFlabby. And all that food – most of it processed and shipped in from far-off lands – not only harms our waistline, but its production doesn’t do the planet much good either. Adding regular fasting to our spiritual lives will do wonders for our spiritual life, but it will also help the environment.

Almsgiving: How many of us have perfectly good clothes in our closets and dressers we never wear? Why not give them away to those less fortunate? Or how about not buying any new clothes this year and making do with the ones we have? Either way we reduce consumption. We could also look to cut deeper: by giving away more money to help the poor, we have less to spend (frivolously) on ourselves which will help our souls and our planet.

Our primary concern in life should be to be holy, but it is nice to know that by doing so, we also become better stewards of creation.

Today is December 17th, which means that we are in the final seven days of Advent – a time with deep liturgical significance. The readings at Mass are no longer from the 3rd or 4th week of Advent, but are specific to the date. Likewise, the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours are also specific to the date. And, of course, today we begin one of my favorite traditions, the O Antiphons:

The seven antiphons to the Magnificat in the ferial Office of the seven days preceeding the vigil of Christmas; so called because all begin with the interjection “O”. Their opening words are:
(1) “O Sapientia”,
(2) “O Adonai”,
(3) “O Radix Jesse”,
(4) “O Clavis David”,
(5) “O Oriens”,
(6) “O Rex Gentium”,
(7) “O Emmanuel”.
Addressed to Christ under one or other of His Scriptural titles, they conclude with a distinct petition to the coming Lord (e.g.: “O Wisdom … come and teach us the way of prudence”; “O Adonai … come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm”; “O Key of David … come and lead from prison the captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death” etc.). Couched in a poetic and Scriptural phraseology they constitute a notable feature of the Advent Offices.

These antiphons are properly said during Vespers, but many families [including mine] simply recite them in the evening independent of the full Vespers prayers. I have always been attracted to contemplating the titles given to Christ (so much that I even wrote a book about it!), and this devotion is a wonderful way to prepare for Christ’s coming at Christmas.

I encourage everyone to say these prayers the next seven days. Here is one version in full (source):

O Sapientia: “O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” (11:2-3), and “Wonderful is His counsel and great is His wisdom.” (28:29).

O Adonai: “O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (11:4-5); and “Indeed the Lord will be there with us, majestic; yes the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king, he it is who will save us.” (33:22).

O Radix Jesse: “O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” (11:1), and A On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.” (11:10). Remember also that Jesse was the father of King David, and Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be of the house and lineage of David and be born in David’s city, Bethlehem (Micah 5:1).

O Clavis David: “O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel controlling at your will the gate of Heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; and lead your captive people into freedom.” Isaiah had prophesied, AI will place the Key of the House of David on His shoulder; when he opens, no one will shut, when he shuts, no one will open.” (22:22), and “His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over His kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever.” (9:6).

O Oriens: “O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1).

O Rex Gentium: “O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.” Isaiah had prophesied, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” (9:5), and “He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” (2:4) .

O Emmanuel: “O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The Lord himself will give you this sign: the Virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”

O come our Savior!

Every religion must address the issue of suffering in this world. Why do we suffer? How should we deal with suffering? Is there a purpose to it? Christianity’s answer to the problem of suffering can be seen on the crucifix – God unites Himself to our suffering and makes it redemptive and the means of our salvation. We all must deal with suffering in our life and it usually is either our path to deeper holiness or estrangement from God.

In the series of videos below, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) addresses the issue of suffering:

Imagine yourself at the Sacrament of Reconciliation, confessing the sin of anger. Which of the following confessions do you think is more appropriate:

• Father, I got angry at my wife and yelled at her.
• Father, I am sorry for the anger which occurred when my wife didn’t have dinner on time.

In the first case, the penitent confessing takes responsibility and assumes the burden for the sin. In the second example, even though the person says he is sorry, there is some force called “the anger” which appears and causes him to do something wrong. The burden of the sin is passed off the person onto something else.

In modern public discourse, it is the second type of “confession” that has become all to common: “mistakes were made” instead of “I made a mistake”, “I’m sorry for any hurt I caused” instead of “I’m sorry for what I did wrong”. We have turned every apology into the passive voice, thus passing the burden away from the person or persons who caused the problem to some impersonal force.

I thought of this when I read the following statement from the head of the Legion of Christ (emphasis added):

We desire to live this day with a spirit of reparation and humility, united to Christ the King, who is rich in mercy. I want to take advantage of this letter to again sincerely ask forgiveness from all those who have suffered or are suffering on account of the sorrowful circumstances we have lived. God is inviting us to live this time by intensifying our prayer life, our acts of charity and penitential spirit, so we can unite ourselves more deeply to Christ and to our fellow brothers and sisters.

“On account of the sorrowful circumstances we have lived” – what exactly does that mean? Not only is it passive – there are some mysterious “sorrowful circumstances” which caused people problems – but it is so ambiguous that it could mean anything from a natural disaster to an unexpected death to a mistake in accounting. It is simply a vague allusion to the real situation: the founder of their order was a fraud who led a double-life and there is a good chance that others, including current Legion leaders, knew about it and covered it up.

Compare that statement with David’s prayer of repentance found in Psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.
Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.
For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.
Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:3-6)

Or the words of Peter when he recognizes the power of Christ:

Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. (Luke 5:8)

These are true prayers of repentance; they are true confessions. It does not try to mitigate the fault for one’s sins; it places the fault squarely where it belongs: on the sinner’s shoulders.

During this Advent, let us resolve to be truly sorry for our sins and to confess them without excuse and without resorting to the passive voice. We are the cause of our problems, not anyone or anything else. Let us have the attitude of David in our repentance: “My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.” (Psalm 51:19).

I recently read a great article on contemplation and work. Some might immediately think these two things to be in opposition: do not work and contemplation struggle against each other? How can one be both contemplative and busy with work?

This apparent opposition does have some validity. Traditionally, Catholics have seen monks and cloistered nuns as the models of a contemplative life. They focus their energies primarily towards prayer and thus are able to achieve contemplation. Their lack of distractions help to foster a contemplative outlook. And if there is one thing the modern work world does not lack, it is distractions. I was on a silent retreat this past weekend, and in many ways it fostered this conception: I had no distractions and was therefore able to dig more deeply into prayer, meditation and contemplation. Scriptural passages leapt off the page in ways they never do normally, and insights came to me in prayer instead of the normal distractions I usually encounter.

Yet every Christian is called to a contemplative life, no matter their state in life and not just when they go on retreat. This call to contemplation includes housewives, truck drivers, CEOs and software developers. As Vatican II emphasized, all Christians are called to holiness, and contemplation is part of a holy life. The ways in which followers of Christ practice this holiness depends on their state of life, but there is no delineation in the call to be perfect, as God is perfect.

So how can we be contemplatives in the midst of the world? First, we should ask: what exactly is contemplation? There are many good definitions, but I think I would define contemplation as “looking at God”. As the Catechism states,

Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. “I look at him and he looks at me”: this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy curé used to say while praying before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the “interior knowledge of our Lord,” the more to love him and follow him. (CCC 2715)

Turning our gaze towards God does not require that we are in a church, nor does it mean that we have to be performing a traditional practice of piety such as the Rosary or Stations of the Cross (although those are all great helps towards contemplation). We can turn our gaze towards God at any time of the day, no matter what we are doing (provided it is not a sinful activity). The article I noted above states:

The discovery of God in the ordinary activities of each day gives our life its ultimate value and full meaning. Jesus’ hidden life at Nazareth comprised “years of intense work and prayer, years during which Jesus led an ordinary life, a life like ours, we might say, which was both divine and human at the same time.”[3] Thus he teaches us that our professional, family, and social life is not a hindrance to praying always,[4] but rather an opportunity to stay very close to God, until a moment comes when it is impossible to distinguish between work and contemplation…

This is what contemplation means: an active prayer without words, intense and serene, deep and simple. It is a gift God grants to those who seek him sincerely, who put their whole heart into fulfilling his will with deeds, and who try to remain in his presence. “First one brief aspiration, then another, and another… till our fervor seems insufficient, because words are too poor… then this gives way to intimacy with God, looking at God without needing rest or feeling tired.”[16] All this can take place, St. Josemaria insists, not only in the periods dedicated expressly to prayer, but also “while we carry out as perfectly as we can (with all our mistakes and limitations) the tasks allotted to us by our situation and duties.”[17]…

Modern society leads many people to live on externals, ever anxious to acquire things, to move around, to look, to distract oneself, perhaps seeking to mask one’s inner emptiness, the loss of the transcendent meaning of one’s life. But we, having discovered the divine call to holiness and apostolate, should have the opposite experience. The more agitated our exterior activity, the more intense should be our inner life, our interior recollection, seeking to dialogue with God present in our soul in grace, mortifying the desires of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.[34] To contemplate God one needs a clean heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.[35]

Our modern society has made contemplation very difficult, as we have many distractions to fill our minds and keep them from gazing at God. But we can – and we must – turn our gaze towards God in the midst of our normal life and live a life of contemplation. Only then will we be able to “see God”.

It is not that we have so little time, but that we have wasted so much of it.

- Seneca, De brevitate vitae, 1, 3

All of us who are striving for holiness by the grace of God are often frustrated by certain persistent sins. These are the sins – sometimes minor, sometimes not so minor – which plague our daily lives. Perhaps it is gossiping at work, or impatience with others, or wasting time. Whatever it might be, persistent sins have the ability to rob us of spiritual strength and lead us to the very dangerous sins of acedia or even despair, which can be fatal to our spiritual lives.

A while back my confessor gave me some great advice regarding persistent sins. He recommended the use of the Jesus Prayer as a weapon against these nagging faults we can’t seem to overcome. For those unfamiliar with it, the Jesus Prayer is an ancient prayer based on the prayer of the Publican which goes:

“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

My confessor recommended that I say this prayer when I am tempted to commit one of these persistent sins. If I fall anyway (usually because I forgot to beg for God’s mercy), then say it immediately after I do so. Saying it before I fall reminds me that I am just a sinner and without God’s mercy I would never be able to overcome my faults. Saying it right after I commit the sin begs God to be merciful to me even though I am a great sinner. Either way, it is a powerful weapon to use to combat those nagging, persistent sins which are extremely difficult to root out.

In practice, I find that at first I usually forget to say the prayer when I am tempted, so I say it immediately after I fall. But eventually I begin to remember to say it during the temptation, and over time I find that it helps me avoid the sin altogether, which leads to less temptations in that area. God is looking to pour out His mercy on us – we just have to avail ourselves of that abundant mercy.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Today is the 70th anniversary of the publication of The Way, one of the best selling spiritual books of the 20th century. Written by St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, it is a compilation of 999 points of reflection which are intended to help in the spiritual life. You can read the entire book online (although I don’t recommend that – print it out or buy it in book format so that you can better reflect on the points).

In 1966, St. Josemaría explained the purpose of the book in an interview:

I wrote a good part of that book in 1934, summarizing my priestly experience for the benefit of all souls with whom I was in contact, whether they were in Opus Dei or not. I never suspected that thirty years later it would be spread so widely – millions of copies, in so many languages. It is not a book solely for members of Opus Dei. It is for everyone, either Christian or not. Among those who have translated it on their own initiative are Orthodox, Protestants, and non-Christians. The Way must be read with at least some supernatural spirit, some interior life and apostolic feeling. It is not a code for the man of action. The aim of the book is to help men become friends of God, to love him and serve all men. In other words, to be an instrument…as Saint Paul the Apostle wanted to be an instrument of Christ – a free and responsible instrument. Anyone who tries to see a temporal goal in the pages of The Way is mistaken. Do not forget it has been common for spiritual authors of every age to see souls as instruments of God.
- May 16, 1966 issue of Le Figaro

Why 999 points? St. Josemaría liked the “theology of mathematics” and he saw the number 9 – three to the third power – as representing the Holy Trinity. In The Furrow, another compilation of spiritual points, he adds point 1,000: “I write this number so that you and I can finish this book with a smile, and so that those blessed readers who out of simplicity or malice sought a cabalistic significance in the 999 points of The Way may rest easy.”

I remember first trying to read The Way a number of years ago and not “getting it.” However, a few years ago I picked it up again and this time it clicked. It has been very helpful to my own spiritual growth and I recommend it highly to anyone who wishes to advance in the spiritual life and thus become a better instrument of God.

St. Josemaría Escrivá, pray for us!