Spiritual Direction

We need help along our journey to appropriately deal with the difficulties of life, especially spiritual help.  It has always been a practice in the Christian Church to seek direction from a spiritual father or mother who is more advanced in the faith, a person who can guide us along our journey. 

Spiritual Direction
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Patience When Faced with Difficulties

The Holy Father recently said:

“To suffer is to accept life's difficulties and carry them with strength. That way the difficulty does not drag us down. To carry it with strength: this is a Christian virtue! Saint Paul says several times: Suffer, endure. This means do not let yourselves be overcome by difficulties. This means that a Christian has the strength to not give up, to carry difficulties with strength. Carry them, but carry them with strength. It is not easy, because discouragement comes, and one has the urge to give up and say, ‘Well, come on, we’ll do what we can but no more.’ But no, it is a grace to suffer. In difficulties, we must ask for this grace, in difficulty.”

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Complain

One reaction to pain and suffering is cynicism.  Because of our fallen nature we tend to complain when things don't go our way.  Christians are called to transcend this way of thinking, through the grace of Christ.  Recently Pope Francis broached the issue.

"Paul and Silas endured tribulations and  humiliation. Jesus himself endured it, showing that He had patience. It's all a process. Let me repeat that word: process. It's a process of Christian maturity, through the path of patience. It's a process that requires time, that doesn't come from one day to the next. It takes an entire lifetime to reach Christian maturity. It's like fine wine.”
 

The Pope then added that when faced with challenges, the temptation to complain is always there. But a Christian who constantly complains, said the Pope, isn't a good Christian.

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Proper Meditation

Much is spoken about meditation and prayer as a way of bringing peace and healing during times of suffering and struggle.  It is important for a Christian to distinguish between what is and what is not proper. 

Here’s a quote from Rev. Dreher describing the ideology of "centering prayer" which follows the same principles as yoga…

"Centering prayer (or yoga), differs from Christian prayer in that the intent of the technique is to bring the practitioner to the center of his own being. There he is, supposedly, to experience the presence of the God who indwells him. Christian prayer, on the contrary, centers upon God in a relational way, as someone apart from oneself. The Christian knows a God who is personal, yet who, as Creator, infinitely transcends his creature. God is wholly other than man. It is also crucial to Christian prayer that God engages man’s whole being in response, not just his interior life. In the view of centering prayer, the immanence of God somehow makes the transcendence of God available to human techniques and experience.

"Centering prayer is essentially a form of self-hypnosis. It makes use of a "mantra," a word repeated over and over to focus the mind while striving by ones will to go deep within oneself. The effects are a hypnotic-like state: concentration upon one thing, disengagement from other stimuli, a high degree of openness to suggestion, a psychological and physiological condition that externally resembles sleep but in which consciousness is interiorized and the mind subject to suggestion."

 

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Endure Pain Joyfully

Pope Francis gave an insightful reflection the other day.  We are called to endure trials and suffering with joy.

"Christians are called upon to endure uncomplainingly and peacefully, like Jesus did," Francis said.

"We ask the Lord to enable us Christians for the endurance with gives use peace, to do so joyfully in our hearts... this fortitude renews our youth and makes us younger," he said.

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