Spiritual disciplines are the things that a person does to stay connected with God in their lives. Spiritual discipline would include prayer, attending church, bible study, and any number of different ways someone might live out the faith they profess. They are an essential part of any Christian life. As Thomas Merton once said “The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.” However many of the disciplines the church has had are unknown to protestants today. The “Christian Disciplines” series is an attempt to glimpse the life of the church throughout it’s history.
195 AD
At this time in the church Marcus Aurelius’ persicution of Christian had recently ended. The Church was young. The leaders who had died in the prosecution like Polycarp, and Justin Martyr were only third generation believers. Polycarp for example had been a companion of Papias who according to tradition had been a companion of the apostle John. The church in 195 AD was wounded and wrestling with who they were and how they were to describe the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of different cultures and philosophies. In Egypt Origen was studying under a man named Clement who was working to describe Jesus in new ways. Though the church didn’t know it another persecution was about to happen under Septimus Severus in 202 AD. Out of this context Clement of Alexandria gives us this portrait of the Christian life.
“The whole life of the spiritual man is a holy festival. His sacrifices are prayers, praises, and readings in the Scriptures before meals. They are psalms and hymns during meals and before bed — and prayers also again during night. By these, the spiritual man unites himself to the divine choir… The spiritual man does not use wordy prayer by his mouth. For he has learned to ask of the Lord what is necessary. In every place, therefore, but not ostensibly and visibly to the multitude, he will pray. While engaged in walking, in conversation, while in silence, while engaged in reading and in works according to reason, he prays in every situation. “
– Clement of Alexandria – 195 A.D., Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 537
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