The Rule of Saint... Dad?
When reflecting back on the times in my life where I felt as if my spiritual life was on track and I was continually growing in virtue and daily drawing closer to Christ Jesus, there was one constant… order and structure. When I look back on those times in which I felt furthest from Christ and was living a life filled with vice and frustrations, there was one constant… a lack of structure or order to my life. It is so predictable, every time I find myself in the confessional I know that those sins, many of which are repeated struggles throughout my life, come about because I allow myself to fall out of a structured prayer life, I allow temporal needs to take precedent, and I prioritize my own selfish desires over those of my Heavenly Father and those of my family. Structure allows for us to form good spiritual habits and ensures that there is time set apart for God in our day.
We all thirst for the love and mercy of Jesus, for God “You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.” (St. Augustine, The Confessions) Yet, how often do we actually carve out time to spend with the Lord? How often do we spend time reflecting on the right order and priorities of our lives? How often do we use the excuse that we are too busy for God?
It is the “modern burden,” something I had spoken of in my earlier article. So, what do we do about it? I often think back on my stint in the seminary and what a wonderful time for spiritual growth it was for me. Since leaving, it is as if I have fought daily to attain that same closeness to God. My entire day was structured so that God was at the center, my classes, my prayer, my free time were all a means for Glorifying God. Yet, as many of us know, the needs of our lives for those who are not called to religious life seem to so quickly fill the time of the day. It can appear impossible to find time to spend with God in prayer. So let us take up this fight together. Let us use the wisdom of those holy men and women who came before us and see if we cannot find a way to provide and implement structure in to the life of the common laity.
What I am purposing is a rule or order, one not unlike those of other religious orders like the Franciscans, Benedictines, or even those of Opus Dei. One that is practical and easily implemented, a modern ordering of the lives of the laity towards God. I am hoping to propose an answer for modern men and women, one that is somewhere between the Rule of St. Benedict and the Benedict Option. Not all of us receive the call to religious or consecrated life, and not all of us have the means to purchase land and remove ourselves from any real reliance on our corrupt culture and society. Yet, we all have a great need for structure and the ordering of God before all else in our lives. We need to transform our lives, we need to put Jesus at the center of it all. Easier said than done, of course, so let’s set ourselves up for success and order our lives towards God and the service of others.
As a fan Father Thomas Merton’s writings and the Cistercians, I will use the Rule of St. Benedict to map out a means for right ordering our lives. The Rule of Saint Benedict is grounded in the vows of obedience, stability, and the conversion of life. In the posts to come I want to spend time with each of them, discussing how each of us can “take” these vows and apply them to our daily lives. God desires us to be men and women of virtue and wants us to take advantage of every day we are blessed with and use it as an opportunity to praise God, grow closer to Christ, and to see to the salvation of our own souls and of those of our family and friends.
In the meantime, particularly since we have just begun the Advent season, let us spend time in prayer reflecting on where our own lives are lacking in proper order or structure. Let us prayerfully consider where our priorities are, where God is in our lives, and how we can do better to spend time with the Lord and order our lives towards that which draws us close to Christ Jesus. We are all called to holiness, let us be always working to improve and grow in virtue.
In Christ,
Paul
