{"id":149,"date":"2013-10-06T03:00:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-06T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/crywoof\/?p=149"},"modified":"2014-12-23T23:44:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T04:44:25","slug":"bootstrapping-the-interior-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/crywoof\/2013\/10\/bootstrapping-the-interior-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Bootstrapping the Interior Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a the first post in a series that appeared on my old blog (with minor differences) some time back. I intend to re-post the series here, one post a week, for the next few months.<\/i><\/p>\n

The interior life is an essential part of Christian discipleship, one that I\u2019ve been learning about over the last few years, and I find that I\u2019ve got a few things to say about it and how to embark upon it\u2014though I hasten to add that I\u2019m no expert. I don\u2019t intend to be in any way exhaustive; I simply intend to talk about things I\u2019ve learned and things that have worked for me. Your mileage, as they say, may vary; and if something that worked for me doesn\u2019t work for you, so be it. If everyone was exactly like me, the world would be a very strange place.<\/p>\n

So what is the \u201cinterior life\u201d? The Wikipedia page on the interior life<\/a> defines it as follows:<\/p>\n

Interior life is a life which seeks God in everything, a life of prayer and the practice of living in the presence of God. It connotes intimate, friendly conversation with Him, and a determined focus on internal prayer versus external actions, while these latter are transformed into means of prayer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wouldn\u2019t have put it quite that way (or nearly so well); I\u2019d simply say that my interior life is my life with Jesus. Being a Christian isn\u2019t simply a way to live or a set of things to believe; it\u2019s learning to live with Jesus. And by the nature of things much of that is inside, where it can\u2019t be seen.<\/p>\n

The interior life is something we are all called to; it\u2019s part of the \u201cuniversal call to holiness<\/a>\u201d described in Lumen Gentium<\/em>. But until you\u2019ve begun to experience it, it\u2019s hard to know just what it means, or how to get started with it. Hence this series of posts.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t claim to be more than a beginner. But according to St. Jose Maria Escriva, the interior life consists in beginning and beginning again<\/a>. So let\u2019s begin.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a the first post in a series that appeared on my old blog (with minor differences) some time back. I intend to re-post the series here, one post a week, for the next few months. The interior life is an essential part of Christian discipleship, one that I\u2019ve been learning about over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10,21,33],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bootstrapping-the-interior-life","tag-catholic","tag-christianity","tag-interior-life"],"yoast_head":"\nBootstrapping the Interior Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is a the first post in a series that appeared on my old blog (with minor differences) some time back. 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