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<\/a>Christianity is meant to be more than beliefs about God and the world, but a way of life. There is more to the faith than the rote memorization of dogmatic facts combined with occasional liturgical celebrations. \u00a0This is not to say it is meant to be a self-righteous moralism, where people establish particular moral codes which are used to lift themselves up while pushing anyone not like them down to the lowest rung of moral credibility. It is a way of life, a way of following the God who is love, a way of seeing everything reflected in relationships with God and others as a result of that love. The truths of the faith are important, because love is incapable of being love without a love for truth, but the truths must be understood as conventional expressions and pointers to the transcendent truth which are meant to be experienced and not just declared.<\/p>\n
Knowing dogmatic definitions, following the liturgical celebrations of the year, and doing what one can to act virtuously are not worthless: they all have value and help a Christian be Christian. But being a Christian is more than all of these, it is to engage the mystery of faith which transcends all knowledge through a prayer life which is open to the glory of God.<\/p>\n
Christians should seek to have a life of prayer, to make all life a prayer. This is easier said than done. Many, if not most, find the anxieties of daily life preventing them from having much to do with a spiritual life. They are tied to the world, focused on the world, and so the spirit and its needs are not only unmet, but they end up being ignored. When someone desires to do something about it, they do not know what to do; they try a few extensive programs, which are often geared towards those who are further advanced in spirituality, and end up finding them unhelpful and so give up without attaining much, if any, spiritual tranquility.<\/p>\n
There is, to be sure, no one program, not technique which can be presented, because spirituality is not merely what we do for ourselves and how we lift ourselves up, but what we do with the grace of God, with the grace, not ourselves, being the foundation. Many without much spiritual practice can find themselves like Paul, falling from their high horse, suddenly experiencing the glory of God all around them, transforming them into great saints. Others, while trying long and hard to achieve a mystical encounter with God, will find themselves cut off from grace, because they assumed too much for themselves and their practice and so instead of being open to God, they really have closed in on themselves. Spiritual practice is meant to open us up, to empty ourselves of all that we hold on to which could be put in between God and ourselves, and to keep us standing at ready, willing to listen to the Word of God when the Spirit blows it our way. If we start with the proper understanding, and without undue expectation, we will find that when grace comes our way, either through a slow progress, or through a sudden realization, our spirit will soar as it encounters and realizes the glory of the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
Christianity is meant to be mystical, to get us to move beyond our limitations through grace, and there is no better way this can be find than in our walk with God. We must push ourselves to pray daily, to find ourselves getting in the habit of prayer at certain times, but then also leave room for the spirit to prompt us for more prayer whenever it is needed. Even if it is brief, even if it simple, if such prompting is heeded by us, we will find it slowly having fruit in our lives. For, when we cooperate with God, we slowly find ourselves engaging him heart to heart instead of merely by the intellect alone, which is what allows the faith to be truly holistic instead of another ideology which leads us astray.<\/p>\n
It is with such caveats, I would like to recommend a simple spiritual regimen for those who say they find it difficult to live a life prayer. It is based upon my own day to day prayer life, and what I find beneficial for myself. It might not work for all, but I think, since its foundation lies in openness to God, it will at least help prepare people for engagement with God, which is what any sound spiritual practice will do.[1]<\/a> The prayers I like to pray in my morning routine are simple. I usually begin with the Our Father and a Hail Mary. Then I add a Jesus Prayer (\u201cLord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy Upon Me a Sinner\u201d), before finishing with the Heavenly King (\u201cHeavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere present and fill all things, treasury of blessings and giver of life, come and dwell within us, cleanse us of our sins, and save our souls, O Gracious Lord\u201d). \u00a0While I might vary the orders of the prayer from day to day, in this fashion I feel I open myself up to all three persons of the Trinity as well as to Mary, and hope, by doing so, I am ready to receive whatever gifts they would have for me for the upcoming day.<\/p>\n Having started the day by handing myself over to the Trinity and the Motherly love of Mary, I recite, from time to time, the Jesus Prayer. If I am anxious or worried, I meditate on it, breathing in and out slowly, hoping to connect the words to my breath, and ease my stress. I usually say it a couple random times in the day, saying the prayer once unless there is an internal pull to recite it several times once I begin saying it, which I then do until I feel I have said it enough and it feels right to stop. For the Jesus Prayer is capable of being used for meditation, like the Hail Mary. Often, indeed, it is recited several times in a row with a prayer rope, but for some, such routine recital is not possible during the day, but saying the prayer here and there can still be done, and if said in faith, it keeps one open to God and whatever grace he might send our way.<\/p>\n As I say the Jesus Prayer, I often try to focus my mind on the words, or beyond that, to say the words alone as a way of clearing my mind of all other words, and then even the words of the prayer itself. and clear my mind of all words. Slowly, but surely, through its help, I will silence my mind and let myself be in that silence \u2013 sometimes for an instant, sometimes longer for it does not have to be long, even five seconds of such silence will be useful and will seem long to those unacquainted with such silence. The point is to say the prayer and then try to silence all thoughts and worries and just experience the presence of being and, in the process, experience the world without thought. The beauty and glory within the world, and therefore the glory and being of God, will reveal itself slowly as we just let ourselves be without any attachment to ourselves. Again, this does not have to be long, and indeed, will not be long when we begin this regimen. We should not measure success by the quantity of the time we silence ourselves, but the quality of our experience.<\/p>\n With this as my typical practice, waking up with the prayers to the Trinity and Mary, and praying occasionally throughout the day the Jesus Prayer, I find myself slowly adding more and more recitations of the Jesus Prayer throughout the day, and with it, more and more moments of silence. It comes to a crescendo in the evening, when it all comes together, and I find myself saying the Jesus Prayer and entering into that silence of being greater than at any other point of time during the day. This is likely because they day is almost over, the stress of the day is gone, and so I feel like I can truly let go and relax and enter the rest of God. This is why the reaction and experience of when that moment of silence, that quality time with God, will emerge will probably be different for others, as their own day differs from mine. But one thing I ca say \u2013 the more I recite the prayer as I feel prompted by the spirit and not as some obligation to routine, the more I find myself reciting it, and opening myself to what comes after I finish and sit in silence. Sometimes, the prayer becomes shortened, so all I say is \u201cLord, have mercy,\u201d but the spirit remains the same. I pray a very short cycle of prayers, have a short period of silence, do something else, and then find myself once again going over to prayer and silence. On my best days, this happens several times, with each being a different yet similar experience.<\/p>\n Making time for prayer and the silence which comes from it have been key for me. \u00a0The prayer keeps me open to Jesus and his grace. \u00a0The silence empties myself of all that I think and do, so that it becomes a mental practice of dying to the self. I let the beauty of creation and the glory of the Creator behind creation come to me and reveal itself to me without my thoughts getting in the way and blocking it from my view. Since the expectation is not of a quantity, the time in which the silence occurs does not depend upon extreme lengths of time to be seen as a success. Knowing this, I find I have less anxiety holding me up with expectations on my part, expectations which will keep me thinking and focused on myself than on the prayer and silence itself. Likewise, knowing it is all about openness to the revelation which is to be given to us in and through the grace of God, the lack of demand placed upon God allows the differences in each of the experiences of prayer not to disturb me or hinder me from pursuing further meditation. \u00a0For it is only with presumption that we find ourselves overcome with one form of spiritual delusion or another, either getting prideful of what we feel we have achieved or despondent and mournful of not sharing in the experiences others relate to us. If we realize it is not about us, then we can cut through all the presumption and let it all be as it is, and let the grace of God shape us and perfect us, even if we do not immediately see our experience how that grace is at work in our spirit.<\/p>\n Because of this practice, I am also able to enter such silence, not just when I am in praying at my home at night, but at other places and times as well. When walking in a forest, it is wonderful to try to silence my mind, and to experience the grandeur of creation without imposing upon it any of my own thoughts. God reveals himself, speaks of himself, in all things, and only in the silence can the logoi of the Logos be truly ascertained. We can label them as forms, and intellectually know of their existence, and conventionally label them as essences or natures, but it is in an encounter with them beyond all thought, when we let the logoi speak without interruption, that we truly find in them the Logos and truly recognize wherever we go, God is able to be seen and heard.<\/p>\n Finally, at, as I go to sleep, I like to offer one last Jesus Prayer, so that the day begins and ends couched in the grace of Christ. \u00a0Sometimes, to be sure, I might have petitions to give to God, and so I empty myself of my hopes and dreams by imparting them on Christ, but in the end, after that, I like to end with the Jesus Prayer, and I feel, if I do not say or give any such petitions, they are included in the spirit of the prayer already.<\/p>\n To be sure, I am not great in the path of spirituality. I struggle, and find my struggles against all kinds of sinful temptation hinder my advance. My practice, though normally as presented above, certainly varies from day to day, and on some days, the prayer will be more done out of routine and force of will than any spiritual prompting. Those days, my prayer and meditation tend to be less focused, indeed, without silence, but even then, I do not worry. I make sure in those days I recite prayers, give myself to God, and let God do the rest, knowing that on such days, God is helping keep me humble and not self-assured of my own spiritual progress.\u00a0 In this manner, on some days I might have less than five minutes prayer, and on other days, find myself enchanted by God and stumbling around in his beauty for hours without end.<\/p>\n While my spiritual practice is, in part, attune to my own needs and particular disposition, hopefully it can help suggest ways those seeking to find a practice for themselves can go about doing so. The most important thing of all the practice is grace. It is the what makes the rest possible, but we must not therefore assume we have nothing to do ourselves, rather, we must find out how it is best to be taken into our lives and do that, so that we find ourselves spiritually nourished and ready to live life as Christ expects of us. For this is what Christianity is about\u2014the acquisition of the grace of God, the acquisition of the blessings of the Holy Spirit through the accomplishments of Christ; without it, all we have is a dead letter which is of no avail.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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