M
Mintaka
Guest
Re: spiritual director –
A spiritual director, or your parish priest, is like a coach or a doctor for your spiritual life.
Doing penance or mortification or ascetic practices is like doing exercises. (That’s what the word “ascetic” means – somebody doing athletic training.)
If you’re just doing normal amounts of sit-ups and push-ups and jumping jacks, you can do that on your own. If you want to do something more elaborate or huge, you need to consult a coach or a sports medicine doctor. Because if you do the wrong exercises at the wrong time or in the wrong way, you will hurt yourself and set back your training. And some exercises (like weightlifting or gymnastics up high) need a spotter to be there with you, to stop dangerous stuff, and keep you from hurting yourself with nobody there to help.
Frankly, you are probably at the sit-ups and push-ups stage. Most people are, even great saints. It’s natural to desire to do more, but it’s also natural to wish you were on the Olympics 2012 team. And if you got on the team, you’d find out that the other athletes were still mostly doing normal exercises, just more perfectly because they’ve got so much practice doing them.
The Rosary is wonderful for penance, for yourself and for others. You might like to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet instead, since it is a prayer of atonement. But all kinds of simple prayers and ordinary Bible reading are good for this stuff. Do a normal amount of prayer every day, with your whole heart and mind as much as you can; go to Mass; go to Confession reasonably often; do good works, even if they’re very small; keep getting to know Jesus and how He loves you; and talk to your priest about what to do. You could do just that, and it could train you into a saint.
Also, if you’re upset, don’t try to add on a bunch of new stuff. Gear up slowly and make each thing a real habit. And make certain you talk to your priest.
A spiritual director, or your parish priest, is like a coach or a doctor for your spiritual life.
Doing penance or mortification or ascetic practices is like doing exercises. (That’s what the word “ascetic” means – somebody doing athletic training.)
If you’re just doing normal amounts of sit-ups and push-ups and jumping jacks, you can do that on your own. If you want to do something more elaborate or huge, you need to consult a coach or a sports medicine doctor. Because if you do the wrong exercises at the wrong time or in the wrong way, you will hurt yourself and set back your training. And some exercises (like weightlifting or gymnastics up high) need a spotter to be there with you, to stop dangerous stuff, and keep you from hurting yourself with nobody there to help.
Frankly, you are probably at the sit-ups and push-ups stage. Most people are, even great saints. It’s natural to desire to do more, but it’s also natural to wish you were on the Olympics 2012 team. And if you got on the team, you’d find out that the other athletes were still mostly doing normal exercises, just more perfectly because they’ve got so much practice doing them.
The Rosary is wonderful for penance, for yourself and for others. You might like to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet instead, since it is a prayer of atonement. But all kinds of simple prayers and ordinary Bible reading are good for this stuff. Do a normal amount of prayer every day, with your whole heart and mind as much as you can; go to Mass; go to Confession reasonably often; do good works, even if they’re very small; keep getting to know Jesus and how He loves you; and talk to your priest about what to do. You could do just that, and it could train you into a saint.
Also, if you’re upset, don’t try to add on a bunch of new stuff. Gear up slowly and make each thing a real habit. And make certain you talk to your priest.
