The Catholic Mass always concludes with an instruction to go and share the Gospel of the Lord. We leave mass with the best of intentions to live our faith, only to forget everything once we are behind the steering wheel in the car!
What if there was a way to make the mass, particularly the Eucharist, a way of life?
The American way of life is often filled with resolutions: eat less, exercise more, spend less money, and instead spend more time with nature. All of these are good ways of incorporating healthy disciplines into our everyday pattern of life. We are at a loss, however, as to how to develop spiritual disciplines that aren’t later shoved aside and replaced with something else that catches our fancy. The spiritual life plan not only gives structure to live one’s faith, it gives purpose. As a commitment to God, it also becomes a tool by which to examen oneself daily—how did I live out my commitment today? It can be used as an examination of conscience for confession preparation, too. Whether called a spiritual life plan, program of life, plan of love, or a rule of life, the purpose is to put into concrete action the great AMEN we proclaim in mass.
Examples for a rule of life abound on the internet. A thorough explanation with guidance and examples can be found in Dan Burke’s Navigating the Interior Life. The book is an excellent primer on how to live in relationship with God, discussing both the Church teaching on this and the practical aspects of living it. Another choice is the free workbook Rule of Life: A Secret of the Saints offered here at SpiritualDirection.com.
The plan, however, is only as good as the preparation that precedes it. Our typical approach to any planning is to write down what we already know and figure out how to make it logistically work out. Instead, we need to let God lead us in developing this plan for life. This takes place in the quiet of prayer.
The first step is to recall the purpose of our existence. We are created to be in loving union with our Triune God. As we grow in this relationship, He blesses us with moments of grace, which is the partaking in His Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4). These are foretastes of Heaven where we will live in a continual state of this grace. Because we are created for living in love of God, it is how we find true happiness. So, the first step in the spiritual life plan is to articulate its overridingpurpose: to love, and be loved by, God and through Him, love the others He places in our life (John 13:34; 1 John 4:7-16).
Next comes its particular purpose: to grow and preserve my relationship with God. Note the importance of the language used. One might say to ‘maintain’ this relationship with God. This is language of the intellect. To instead say ‘preserve’ is language of the heart. As you go about creating your life plan, think through your choice of vocabulary to transform it into language of love.
With all of this in mind, begin a conversation with God on how you currently live your relationship with Him, and how you might grow and preserve it. Keep in mind your current relationship with each person of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Daily prayer and examen, devotionals, spiritual reading, liturgy of the hours and mass attendance are common ways that we preserve our relationship with Him. Also consider the purity of your love for others in your life as you go about daily duties and commitments. A plan of life isn’t about community service, ministry, or acts of charity such as donations (unless God is calling you to these in order to perfect specific virtues in your life). Its focus instead is on your mind and heart.
With that focus, God will bring to your consciousness any deficiencies in the above. What relationships need my attention? Do I currently make a concentrated effort to preserve relationships in my life? Also look at how you determine what you will and will not do. Are my choices mostly based on appeasing and pleasing myself? Do my choices in some way serve my attempts to control others or orchestrate outcomes that I think are necessary? Do I stop to think if a choice is moral or, if it is good, is it necessary? What are my benchmarks for deciding what I will and will not do—how often does it occur to me to consider if this helps to grow and preserve my relationship with Jesus?
As you can imagine, all of this prayer takes place over many days. Don’t rush it. Instead, give God time to reveal Himself and yourself to you.
From this, areas in which you need improvement become obvious. You may already know your root sin or you may still be seeking to better understand this aspect of yourself. Bad habits, mental and physical energy wasted, disordered emotions and thoughts…God will reveal all that is needed for your love to grow at this time. The life plan isn’t intended to be a plan to conquer “everything I hate about myself”. It is not an exercise of pledging certain actions that will be taken against every sin and deficiency you have—that would fuel scrupulosity. It’s not an agreement or contract with God. It is a commitment to Him grounded in your learning how to let Him lead your life. It will support you to cooperate with His grace as you go through your day. You will begin to identify changes you can make, both internal and external, which become your gift to Him. You’ll more quickly surrender to Him those things you are powerless to change.
Developing the spiritual life plan may seem to be a daunting task, one that asks for vulnerability and honesty with God. Yet it is the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son, who will lead you gently through it. Once implemented, you will have days and even seasons of falling, for even the just man falls seven times a day but hand-in-hand with the Spirit he rises again (Proverbs 24:16). Don’t miss this opportunity to grow ever more deeply in love with the Lord who loves you more than you can love yourself.
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