Catholic Discipline

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I have been looking for ways to better organize and discipline my life through my faith. However, I always seem to falter and fall back to my complacent or mediocre ways. I am 21 years old, in college (doing mediocre) and attempting to enter into the LAPD. However, I want to strengthen my life, to achieve physical condition (I weightlift but want to go further), and to each a state of complete discipline and organization.

I am not a full catholic in the sense that I have been baptized but have not completed RCIA. I have finally found a Catholic Church that I like (being more conservative in style), but still, some days I feel this foreboding sense of laziness that enters in mind, that focuses on entertainment instead of work, and the hours that are wasted on menial things like TV or hanging out. Notwithstanding the fact that I live with my girlfriend (I know this is bad, but we are working to fixing this situation, I’ll pay my dues with the good lord) who is scatter brained and undisciplined herself. My question being, is there any system, design, or regimen that is out there that can help me with this.

Any advice welcomed.

Alex
 
Hi Alex. It is hard to be a good Catholic but Jesus didn’t say it would be easy. We all struggle daily because our culture here in the USA is against us. Many things tempt us to be lazy and to turn away from God. One way the devil works is to confuse us to the point where we don’t recognize sin. I suggest you pray more and read your Bible more in order to listen to God. Make a committment to yourself to spend one hour in prayer and reading your Bible daily. Turn off your phone and TV when you do this. If you give this time to God, you will be rewarded in many ways. I challenge you to do this for one full week. Ask your girlfriend to pray with you and to read the Bible with you too, if she won’t don’t let that stop you. Ask God to help you perservere and to increase your faith. I will pray for you and your success in your discipline.
 
I found that in my own struggles i added a two new habits at a time. For starters, no matter what I pray on my knees first thing in the morning I am to busy not to pray. Also, I make sure that my kitchen is clean before I go to bed, and review my day. Then I add new habits as I get used to the others. If I tried to do everything at once, I get overwhelmed and end up not doing anything
 
Hi Loyola,
I recently discovered that my laziness can be counteracted by my prayer life which I really did not have–a prayer life–until recently.
I recommend prayer and dialogue with our Lord at the BEST time of the day. What helps me follow through with this is what one priest said to a group pf us: Abel gave God an offering that was his best, likewise, in your prayer give God the best. Do not say your prayer on your bed, or when it’s night time because that is not the best time. You will be sleepy, and you are really not giving God the best. Like Abel, pray to God at your BEST time.

Now I pray in the morning and sometimes after class, as well as include a rosary at times. God’s grace, through prayer, has helped me counteract my deep expression of laziness that I find in myself. God bless.

-Alison
 
loyola109 said:
I Any advice welcomed.

Alex
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From an RCIA Candidate, abject humble slave to three cats, who nonetheless has OPINIONS…

Try increasing your prayer life SLOWLY. No big stuff. Five decades of Rosary can take about 15 minutes. Just try that for a few weeks and see if it helps. Once you get into the habit of the daily rosary, no matter what else is happening, you can add some more prayers.
 
It is a difficult thing to change habits. We have much inertia in our lives that often keep us from doing what we should in favor of what is easy.

I get like this from time to time as well. I have some suggestions.

First: Complete the RCIA. Receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Then you will be able to treceive the Sacrament of Reconcilliation. This will greatly enhance your spirituality and longing for closer union with the Lord.

Second: Frequent Confession. While this is different for each person, I personally feel the once a month is not often enough for me. I generally go weekly or every two weeks.

Third: Very important! Frequent reception of the Blessed Sacrament; Holy Communion. This will bring you graces upon graces

Forth: Daily Mass, if possible will help.

Fifth and last: Make a private retreat at a Catholic Retreat house. Make this a directed retreat, if possible. Spend your time in spiritual reading and prayer. I recommend a minimum of three days.

I know you are a student and are probably buried in reading, but if you have time, read Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. This spectacular and very readable book has helped millions over the centuries in their quest to be closer to God.
 
Alison, I am 70 years old and still regretting that I did not spend the time when I was in College to study the recommended hours per credit hour. You will be learning all your life, but those years as a student are a wonderful opportrunity. Television is mostly a waste of time. An occasional concert or stage play can be revitalizing. Prayer, study, some form of physical activity and your life will hum. Today.s drinking and partying way through University is a terrible waste of ones resources.
 
I am 75 and still fighting temptations. It took years to shake loose from some very bad habits, I guess it is a life-time struggle.

Hey Al, your conscience has been telling you that to live with a woman before matrimony is not good for you - right? Since you are a college student living with a scatterbrained woman will distract you from study time, you know that. I like the fact that you want to join the LAPD, thats great…but you will have to learn to discipline yourself, mentally.

Now I am going to say just a tiny bit about how I finally began to see a breakthrough. I too, used to look FOR A SYSTEM, some way to make myself a better Catholic. I’d go to confession, I’d pray some, but 2 weeks later I was doing the same nonproductive sins again. YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE!

I COULDN’T DO IT ALONE. I had a tragedyin my family and spent the nihjt with a pistol thinking about shooting myself. I did not sleep but walked all night. At morning I stepped outside and said, “God if you are there please show me”. The wind was blowing hard. No birds there at all. In a minute a little bird flew over my head and flapped into the wind. I took that to be the Holy Spirit. Every morning when I see a bird I stop and say,“Hello Holy Spirit, thank you for being there”.

I started to pray to the Holy Spirit all during the day with very short prayers. In a while things got easier. Sure I still fell sometimes but I suggest that you ask the Holy Spirit ( in plain language) to help you become a better Catholic. Hey, He will do things, put new people in your life, put good words in your mouth. You can’t do it alone. Ask the Holy Spirit. He just might make that girl move out for another guy, would you think that would be good for your soul and your future? I think so.
Thanks for reading this. I will pray for you little buddy. I am a Knight of Colombus in Texas. Prayer in earnest is answered. I know that.
 
It is no wonder that you are having trouble reforming your life. You are living in grave sin. And you are minimizing it by saying that you’ll someday in the future pay your dues. You are paying those dues in your continued failure to become more Holy.

Holiness doesn’t come from us through a dedication of our will to pray more or do good deeds. it starts with sincere contrition for our sins, a resolve to turn away from our sin.

If you were really sorry for probably the biggest sin (sin is a freely taken choice that separates us from God.), you would do something about it. But instead you rationalize, minimize it. And then you wonder why you don’t become more Holy.

Quit fooling yourself. Either you want to grow in Holiness or you don’t. Do something about the sin in your life or allow it to overtake you. There is no middle or transitional ground. It is a fork in the road.
 
Thank you all for your advice. I feel that with your prayers and the prayers as a catholic community as a whole to our Lord, I can do anything. God bless you all.
 
I definitely think living with your girlfriend is the first thing that you are going to need to tackle and it is really something that you should not put off. As our beloved pope John Paul II said “the future starts today, not tomorrow.” I know that living together is very commonplace and accepted as normal by many, but trust me, it really clouds your judgment and will lead you right off that path that you want to be on. The longer you continue, the further astray you will find yourself.

What do you know about the Communion of Saints? I think realizing how connected we are to these holy men and women, who made heroic sacrifices in order to follow God’s will, can really be quite inspiring and motivating, especially when we are tempted to think that our sins aren’t that bad or “oh well, everyone’s a sinner.” I really recommend reading about the lives of some of these saints, reading some of what they have written themselves, and praying to them. They really are our friends in heaven, encouraging us as we take on our struggle to stay on that path that will lead us to heaven.

The main thing is to just do what you need to do. Correct your current living situation without delay and you will probably find that the rest of your life will start to fall into order. You might even start to get a glimpse of what God has planned for you.
 
I recommend Time Management for Catholics as the basic tool for all people trying to fit Christian life and daily life together. By Dave Durand, Sofia Institute Press.

by the way, as long has we have one persistent sinful habit we cling to, we will not make progress in the spiritual life. Our prayer in those times should be for the grace to express contrition and amend our way of life, and for the strength to do whatever it takes. Examples would be a businessman engaged in a sinful or exploitative business practice, a woman practicing ABC, a man with a pornography habit, a person who has a running feud with a neighbor or relative, a person in an invalid marriage.
 
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