In Need of the Basics

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When doing my reading, or researching, I come across more complex spirituality.

I am in need of some milk. I have a bright mind, unfortunately corrupted from a life of sin, but in a way, I am aware of the intense spiritual reality, and of the bombardment of the devil. I need to know, on a fundamental, but basic level, what to attend to inside in my daily life. I tried continuous prayer, but when needing to accomplish tasks, the prayer becomes fruitless. I have spent a time trying to focus on doing God’s will, but I don’t want to read St. Alphonsus’ work on the topic because it is too advanced. I am weary of reading certain things from saints because they may have understood things at a different level, or for certain revelations potentially unnecessary for my state of life.

Prayer is good, but beyond that, what about the daily maintenance? When I don’t know certain things, I can find them out by sufficient grace, but that is potentially dangerous when the Church offers more than that. I know the qualities of evil, but if I can’t keep my mind on virtue, and whatever virtue really is versus vice on, again, the fundamental and simple level, I get distracted and temptations become bothersome.

I know the basics when it comes to perfect contrition, the states necessary for the quality of prayer, certain spiritual safeguards, among other things. Some things I don’t know are certain spiritual exercises you can do in public, the insider scoop on virtues beyond the skeleton-knowledge of what virtues are in elementary practice, which doesn’t help much because I am more culpable than I used to be, and life is more than “being nice.”

For instance, what are some practices that are good to maintain? I know surrounding yourself with things that elevate your mind to capsulate God’s beauty beyond merely the substantial is important, and that to avoid using objects for their worth versus God’s.

I also am aware of the angelic and demon presence, but keeping my mind focused on that for a short length of time gets me feeling too elevated, and is distracting. It’s something I can’t change, so I don’t want to overwork it. I’ve read various topics from books such as “The Imitation of Christ,” and some various C. S. Lewis books, as well as “Hell,” “Purgatory,” “The Devil,” and other books that cover various apologetic resources, somewhat irrelevant to me; I’ve read books on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life, but among many, but not all, of these books they only cover an area of interest, not necessity. I only feel distracted reading them.

I need something more than practices. I need to keep my mind busy in the spiritual.

But still, the gate is narrow, and if I expect to get to heaven, I need to know the road, all the way there.
 
What about the prayer of doing?

Acknowledge God
Take the next right step
Be a sign of hope to those around you

As for continuous prayer,
if you say a morning offering,
then everything you do becomes a prayer.
 
I’m interested in the interworkings of doing, because I know there’s more than simply doing.

I know if you fight, or are culpable, you have to expect the devil to fight you. I can’t just elevate myself and expect things to be fine. I have to work out everything. People that don’t care don’t get much attention from the devil; this much I have experienced in my life, but the devil wants you to die in sin, and he will work you over eventually. There’s always a downward pull.
 
Here’s a start:

Corporal Works of Mercy
Code: 
To feed the hungry.
To give drink to the thirsty.
To clothe the naked.
To welcome the stranger. (Also referred to as "shelter the homeless")
To visit the sick.
To visit the imprisoned.
To bury the dead.
Spiritual Works of Mercy
Code: 
To instruct the ignorant.
To counsel the doubtful.
To admonish sinners.
To bear patiently those who wrong us.
To forgive offenses.
To console the afflicted.
To pray for the living and the dead.
One can think about and pray about and read about being holy all day and all night long. At some point, it’s good to turn all this contemplation into action.

It ain’t always glamorous,
as Mother Teresa demonstrated.
 
ThomasMann said:
When doing my reading, or researching, I come across more complex spirituality.

I am in need of some milk. I have a bright mind, unfortunately corrupted from a life of sin, but in a way, I am aware of the intense spiritual reality, and of the bombardment of the devil. I need to know, on a fundamental, but basic level, what to attend to inside in my daily life. I tried continuous prayer, but when needing to accomplish tasks, the prayer becomes fruitless. I have spent a time trying to focus on doing God’s will, but I don’t want to read St. Alphonsus’ work on the topic because it is too advanced. I am weary of reading certain things from saints because they may have understood things at a different level, or for certain revelations potentially unnecessary for my state of life.

Prayer is good, but beyond that, what about the daily maintenance? When I don’t know certain things, I can find them out by sufficient grace, but that is potentially dangerous when the Church offers more than that. I know the qualities of evil, but if I can’t keep my mind on virtue, and whatever virtue really is versus vice on, again, the fundamental and simple level, I get distracted and temptations become bothersome.

I know the basics when it comes to perfect contrition, the states necessary for the quality of prayer, certain spiritual safeguards, among other things. Some things I don’t know are certain spiritual exercises you can do in public, the insider scoop on virtues beyond the skeleton-knowledge of what virtues are in elementary practice, which doesn’t help much because I am more culpable than I used to be, and life is more than “being nice.”

For instance, what are some practices that are good to maintain? I know surrounding yourself with things that elevate your mind to capsulate God’s beauty beyond merely the substantial is important, and that to avoid using objects for their worth versus God’s.

I also am aware of the angelic and demon presence, but keeping my mind focused on that for a short length of time gets me feeling too elevated, and is distracting. It’s something I can’t change, so I don’t want to overwork it. I’ve read various topics from books such as “The Imitation of Christ,” and some various C. S. Lewis books, as well as “Hell,” “Purgatory,” “The Devil,” and other books that cover various apologetic resources, somewhat irrelevant to me; I’ve read books on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life, but among many, but not all, of these books they only cover an area of interest, not necessity. I only feel distracted reading them.

I need something more than practices.

But still, the gate is narrow, and if I expect to get to heaven, I need to know the road, all the way there.
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I know of many books I could recommend, but could you be more specific in what you want to know? I think I have an idea of what you’re looking for but I’m not entirely sure.
I will give a few recommendations now anyways though…
My daily Bread
Spiritual Combat
Trustful surrender to Divine Providence

Just a few for starters, let me know what you think.
On another note, I would not recommend reading C. S. Lewis to learn about the spiritual life, nothing against him personally, but being that he was protestant, his writings aren’t the best for a Catholic still learning their faith, it may only serve to confuse you or give you erroneous ideas of what or how to believe, among other things…I just strongly discourage reading from his books for now.

I also want to add, be patient with yourself, God knows your needs both spiritual an temporal, and He will always hear your prayers, but just as a good Father does not give his children everything they ask for, but always considers what is best for them first, so God also gives to us in that way, and we must be at peace and content while waiting, because to have anxiety or discouragement or depression over our spiritual life not moving or growing in a way we would like or a way we understand, shows that our motive and intentions are inordinate and self centered, we must trust in God and have our minds focused on Him as our goal… perhaps there are many things you don’t know now, but remember, God is not displeased with us for not doing what we don’t even know yet, all He expects is that you do well with what you have now, and just always keep trying, the worst thing we can do is give up, and as long as you are always willing to get up after falling, God is always there to offer His hand.

Sorry if that was too preachy 😛 just thought I’d share some thoughts that helped me in similar struggles(which I still endure even now)

Well I hope this helps, and I will continue to think of more book ideas :3
 
Here, I’ll give you one: “Fear those that can kill the spirit, not the flesh,” or however loosely quoted that was.

Or, “Don’t stop,” because stopping can lead to vulnerability.

These are the sorts of things I am looking for; fortunately I remembered these just now, but I don’t have everything I need in my memory.
 
PureChaos said:
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A few things that have helped me from Padre Pio are the notion of “Virtue and pain.” There are lot of notions of falsifications of either of these.

I also know that we have to try, even though that sounds like a simple concept. Sometimes it’s easy to auto-pilot, especially in distraction. Sometimes loss of hope is a lack of trying.

We can even be angry without sin.

I have the capacity to know everything I need to, yet God expects us to learn them. This is what I am trying to do. We have to do our best.

Another important thing for me to do is to be happy. There, another thing I learned just now.

It is a continual self-denial. The path can get curvy, be weary, flow, and may God be with all of us. God can use a lot, aside from evil. If we fall off the path, get back on. Venial sin can be a vulnerability; mortal sin can be an ultimate downfall. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.

Someone please tell me, is there any consistent meditation that continues on the path of righteousness?
 
It sounds to me that you are on the right path already, just keep doing what you’re doing, but for “consistent meditation that continues on the path of righteousness”? The first ones that come to mind are the ones I’m sure you already know, the mysteries of the rosary, the life and passion of Jesus Christ, the four last things(death, judgement, heaven, hell), the Beatitudes…there is really not much else necessary, though that’s not to say there is not a great deal more to list, but consider that many of the saints did not have much more than those few things, especially before the printing press was invented,

But there are a few books that particularly excite the soul and mind to “continue on the path of righteousness”, the ones I listed before are some, but there are some books you can read free online(public domain) which I’d like to recommend, although you can find them for sale through bookfinders if you prefer physical copies(which I do)
archive.org/details/meditationsday00bacouoft
archive.org/details/HeartOfTheGospel1911

The second one is my absolute favorite, the chapter titled “the wounded heart” is about the most moving thing I’ve ever read.
 
Do not be exasperated, and often, a pause to wait to see what God wants from us after becoming exasperated is a complaint. God wants us to do His will, and if something is His will and we disobey in intent, His will changes. Don’t force. If there is a subjectively holy action and we reject it, it may cease to be a holy action through means of vice attached. God is hard on us; we have to be hard on ourselves. We cannot do it with feelings–the feelings follow our actions, and we cannot change them; they can change us though. We are all rebellious children to be brought under the lash. Do not despair. Do not plan holy things, only listen. If we plan them, they are vulnerable actions to be brought down by the devil. We are to be an inspiration to our fellows. The more resistant we are, the weaker we become. Do not become the ultimate resistor. Jesus is usually depicted as a man on one side of the icon screen in the Byzantine church with a slight furrow in his eyebrows. Do not become attached to even holy things, for if you lose sight of one holy action you are attached to and forget the partials of that holy action, it may cause you to resist. We must listen to grace, and in order to follow through with grace, we must be willing to share. Grace is not selfish. One certain grace is not sufficient for all actions meaning that if you achieved a certain grace from one reading, that same grace may not be beneficial for another necessity. Focus on God’s beauty; we have to accept it through the heart too, not only the mind–the mind and the heart are the primary bodily faculties. God’s beauty is everywhere, so strive to seek it–don’t bite off more than you can chew. Bless everything, and don’t give advice you don’t want to follow. Push yourself into having no where to go but to God.

I am sorry for my rambling, but it helps me beneficially.
 
ThomasMann said:
Do not be exasperated, and often, a pause to wait to see what God wants from us after becoming exasperated is a complaint. God wants us to do His will, and if something is His will and we disobey in intent, His will changes. Don’t force. If there is a subjectively holy action and we reject it, it may cease to be a holy action through means of vice attached. God is hard on us; we have to be hard on ourselves. We cannot do it with feelings–the feelings follow our actions, and we cannot change them; they can change us though. We are all rebellious children to be brought under the lash. Do not despair. Do not plan holy things, only listen. If we plan them, they are vulnerable actions to be brought down by the devil. We are to be an inspiration to our fellows. The more resistant we are, the weaker we become. Do not become the ultimate resistor. Jesus is usually depicted as a man on one side of the icon screen in the Byzantine church with a slight furrow in his eyebrows. Do not become attached to even holy things, for if you lose sight of one holy action you are attached to and forget the partials of that holy action, it may cause you to resist. We must listen to grace, and in order to follow through with grace, we must be willing to share. Grace is not selfish. One certain grace is not sufficient for all actions meaning that if you achieved a certain grace from one reading, that same grace may not be beneficial for another necessity. Focus on God’s beauty; we have to accept it through the heart too, not only the mind–the mind and the heart are the primary bodily faculties. God’s beauty is everywhere, so strive to seek it–don’t bite off more than you can chew. Bless everything, and don’t give advice you don’t want to follow. Push yourself into having no where to go but to God.

I am sorry for my rambling, but it helps me beneficially.
Click to expand...
I recommend a book called Arise From Darkness by Father Benedict Groeschel.
 
Not to sound redundant, but advice given to me by an Orthodox monk I was studying under, advised me to read the gospels. Then read them again. It’s the most Holy book one can read. You will come to know Christ better.
 
the_phoenix said:
Here’s a start:

Corporal Works of Mercy
Code: 
To feed the hungry.
To give drink to the thirsty.
To clothe the naked.
To welcome the stranger. (Also referred to as "shelter the homeless")
To visit the sick.
To visit the imprisoned.
To bury the dead.
Spiritual Works of Mercy
Code: 
To instruct the ignorant.
To counsel the doubtful.
To admonish sinners.
To bear patiently those who wrong us.
To forgive offenses.
To console the afflicted.
To pray for the living and the dead.
One can think about and pray about and read about being holy all day and all night long. At some point, it’s good to turn all this contemplation into action.

It ain’t always glamorous,
as Mother Teresa demonstrated.
Click to expand...
Amen! Give and you shall receive. Practice the gospel; we already understand it well enough. 🙂
 
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