The following suggested forms of action are more general
rule than itemized list. It is easier to quit any behavior cold turkey, than by degrees. If we quit by degrees, we feed the behavior in the meantime. Perhaps pick one activity to purge of selfishness, each quarter. In a year four major spiritual activities will be perfected or at least improved.
Completely forgiving those who have done you wrong.
Yes, completely forgive the great injustices made against you…no reservation, no conditions, no portion of just punishment saved, no memory of the injustice.
The experienced saints have let Christ decide all the accidents of life: time and manner of death, poverty or wealth, freedom or oppression. Each life is custom constructed to perfect the body of Christ, which all are intended to join.
Simplify your life. Anything that is acquired, or any activity done is usually a distraction from God, who we should “love with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul.”, (Mt 22:37).
Be selective about what you allow into your life, and what we are attached to.
If there is no value in asserting an opinion, then withhold it. This advances the essential virtue of humility. If you are done a minor injustice, reply with “Pardon me.” One incident in a thousand requires police response, all others should be disregarded as an unnecessary detour. If your opponent holds that “Pardon me.” Is an admission of guilt, don’t worry Christ is an even better lawyer than the Devil. Driving and family are especially productive training grounds is this area.
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Review your reasons for spiritual advancement. Recall that one’s spiritual growth is the very reason God creates a person. We are to advance past our failings and bring our virtue which is hard won in this fallen world, to union with Christ. The entire body of Christ will benefit.
Make this project your primary goal in life, all else is secondary or supports this primary goal of spiritual advancement. Keep your big vision, but live your virtue each moment only, do not worry about tomorrows challenges.
Virtue is not something to be stored for tomorrow. It goes with us everywhere and increases as we give it away.
In every act eliminate selfishness and increase perfection.
Do everything with less self satisfaction attached to it — eating, sex, work. What we avoid is self satisfaction, not joy or community. Do not half heartedly celebrate a birthday or play a softball game.
To spend four hours a day learning an instrument is a form of human perfection, to listen to four hours of your favorite song is a form of masturbation.106 To celebrate a birthday is an act of charitable love, to eat six pieces of birthday cake is an act of selfish satisfaction. Replace emotional highs and lows, with constant joy of purpose.
Advance in ones understanding of the gospel, Catholic theology, moral law and spiritual advancement. This is simply spiritual reading, and the library is free, and most have an 106 Pleasure may be evaluated as proper joy, or selfish stimulation. It is not a simple task, it requires experience. The key question is: does the pleasure end in self, or in a higher ideal? To listen to ones favorite song should reinforce one’s proper ideals, but if it ends only in self it is illegitimate. It is not a one size fits all, to practice baseball 6 hours a day may or may not be legitimate, depending on one’s profession and ones other duties.
To know the difference spiritual development is needed. Spiritual development is a worn road, not a easy path. It is worn by trial and error, and kept on track by denial of self interest.
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interlibrary loan program. Many Catholic classics are available free online.
Remember that reading is not the vital element in spiritual advancement. Most who have attained perfection were not even literate.
Make use of the sacraments. Attend one additional Mass
or online Mass each week. Sacramental confession makes a difference.
Do not attempt to bypass the obstacles in your path, remediate them into virtue. We may be able to exit the arena of spiritual battle, but if do, we fail to make the required spiritual advancement.
Remember your time frame for spiritual advancement is
your entire life, and unlimited retries are available. But at some point our lives will end, we will then see the absolute value of incorporation into Christ and the futility of the many varieties of self satisfaction.
Make prayer when you are sitting on the couch or in the
car. No time excuses here. Build your prayer life from this foundation.
To help conquer an obstinate behavior, perfect your ‘small’
actions. Remember the virtues do affect each other, and they have much in common. To conquer obstinate anger, make every possible act of humility, patience and kindness in all other areas. It really makes a difference.
Keep going after failure. Recover and continue. Trust in God. The only real mortal sin is refusal to participate in God.
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participation in Christ. The best schedule for confession is once a month or once a quarter.
Make a 30 day effort and evaluation of increased virtue.
Twelve times a year you can commit to a small behavioral improvement. You might choose to go out of your way in respect and consideration using ‘sir ‘ and ‘ma’am’, withholding optional criticism, and so on. When any variety of selfishness is purged, the entire soul benefits, and thirty days of it is enough to observe a difference in one’s soul. Food, marital relations, work, entertainment are all plentiful areas to purge self.
Ongoing Sacrifice: Jesus describes this as “pruning” in John 15:2;
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Many have ambition to be an instant martyr, but fewer will make daily sacrifice. Yet this is the primary way that vice is made into virtue, and all of creation benefits.
Mental discipline: no metal wandering, no inadvertent entry into thoughts harmful to one’s moral makeup. Do not simply avoid idle thoughts, replace it with a better thought, prayer is a reliable substitute.
Moral discipline: Avoid or correct all addiction, obsession and illegitimate action, and hold at arm’s length any legitimate action, be able to take it or leave it.
Ask God for the grace of advancement and perfection.
Beginners should first try out the discipline of spiritual advancement. When committed to, it requires absolute dedication. God is of course grateful for any advancement we 140
make, but if we attempt perfection, major elements of our life may (or may not) be rearranged for us.
Evaluation of Spiritual Advancement Make this practical rather than academic; what should I have don’t better this day, and how can I do better tomorrow, or the next time my particular imperfection arises? Make a mental scenario in which you see yourself making the correct choices and actions in challenging circumstances.
Review your shortcomings, your particular vices, but now
hold them at arm’s length, in a more detached fashion, do not make mental images of these vices. Make a detached observation of their worthlessness, they are worse than useless, they impede one’s spiritual growth.
Monitor your idle thoughts and daydreams. Idle thoughts
will always occur in our state of being that is less than divine union, and they usually arise from our wandering soul, but even our wanderings are of a better or lesser quality. We should attempt to prevent such wandering, and make note of the quality of idle thoughts which will be of a better quality as we advance is soul. Our thoughts will be less critical and self seeking. By directing our thoughts at all times we create good habits or virtue.
Do my former satisfactions hold less appeal now, than a
year ago. If we are advancing, we will sense this difference.
Be especially observant in routine, known situations. The daily commute or daily interaction with an individual is a useful place to measure our improving quality of action. Down time is another, do we drift, or do we cultivate peace, prayer or meditation.
Maintenance of spiritual advancement From CCC 2088,
“The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it.”
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The Christian, or any person of faith or virtue must expect attacks upon their faith and virtue, and should consider how to deal with these assaults. The ongoing acts of sin in our world affect all of creation, and according to their common attributes.107 This trait of commonality in creation, was meant to be a blessing to share goodness, but with the onset of sin, it too was shared.
Overreliance on emotions is perhaps the greatest
challenge to faith. When the joy or satisfaction in faith is no longer sensed it is discarded to some degree great or small.
Acedia is the term for this.
Presumption or despair both relegate faith to the category of unneeded. Presumption of salvation, or predestination of actions or outcome reduces faith, to nothing more than frictional energy loss occurring in the moral realm. Despair leads to the mistaken belief that evil is greater than God.
Spiritual advancement and maintenance in extreme
circumstances is not easy, but it has been attested to by Christ himself. Jesus lived his entire life under military occupation by 107 The virtue of respect for example may be degraded into arrogance, which might effect itself as impatience. We see that arrogance is not a real and separate vice, but is the virtue of respect which is lacking.
Arrogance retains respect, but only for its owner, not others. The underlying virtue remains but is degraded by selfishness, and we call this corrupted virtue a vice.
Every moral being has the virtue of respect, but all respect is somehow degraded by arrogance anywhere. Arrogance in some way damages every other virtue. Consider that every virtue is derived from love, who is God. In his closed system of eternity, God is immune from corruption, but all of creation is somehow damaged by the corruption of any other virtue in creation.
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Rome; his advice was to give unconditional love, even if crucifixion was received in return.
The saints who were advanced in spiritual attainment closely monitored what they fed their soul. Spiritual junk food in the forms of impure day dreams, conversations, images had a real effect on their soul, and they felt it. Spiritual junk food, produced junk thoughts, and encouraged junk actions. We are truly what we choose to be; “as a man thinks, so he becomes”, Proverbs, 23:7.
How Spiritual Advancement