Some Perspectives

It is important to see how your experience compares with the Church’s wisdom about growing in the spiritual life.  Listed below are some of the essential elements used to discern this growth.

Throughout prayer one looks at "movement":  Do I move toward these elements or away from them?  Do I sense in myself interest in growing in these areas or resistance?

A. Solitary Prayer
Willingness to be alone with God, to waste time with God, to be face to face with God.

B. Desire for the Truth
Willingness to hear the truth about one’s self and about one’s life and about the Lord; willingness to be silent and to listen.

C. Openness to the Outcome
Willingness to be detached or indifferent to what the Lord desires for us, as long as it is from the Lord: willingness to trust God, to abandon one’s self into God’s hands.

D. Patience
Willingness to wait for the Lord who often moves in a way and according to a timetable not our own.  Willingness to be patient when things do not seem to be moving or when there is no clarity.

E. Risk
Willingness to step out, even in small ways, in faith, trusting a will and a plan other than our own.