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Program of Spiritual Life: A Primer

            Many souls ask, “How can I make progress in the spiritual life?” I recommend organizing one’s spiritual life around the virtues, sacraments and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

            Therefore, I recommend a tri-part plan. Three, because God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three, because all spiritual writers agree that the spiritual life progresses by three stages, phases or dimensions (purgative, illuminative, and unitive). Some say these are three stages which follow successively one after the other, and that is in one sense true; yet purgation, illumination and union are essential aspects of every spiritual life no matter whether they are beginners, proficient or advanced.

            Setting out with a concrete goal in mind is very helpful for achieving any end. If we work without a goal, who knows what might come of our efforts. The ancients said, “In omnia respice finem,” in all things regard your end.

            Once you know your end, establish the means. The means here must be concrete acts. If I say, “I will be good,” that’s not concrete enough. If I say, “Today, I’ll break a pencil into two pieces,” that’s very concrete. Every day, you should examine your resolutions, according to your plan. You will only know whether your resolutions were actually fulfilled or not based on whether they were concrete or not. You should not only look at your failures, but praise God for the good you did. You should be more amazed that you did good with the help of God’s grace than that you fell due to your concupiscence.

            Let’s use this outline as a guide, the box below. You should be able to draft a plan of spiritual life based on this box, and write it all on something as portable and concise as an index card. We don’t need treatises on the spiritual life, we need here concrete action.

Don’t put more than three, four, or in an extreme case five resolutions on your program. Too many only makes it too hard to keep track of and remember on the fly.

            Why the emphasis on “virtues”? In each part of the spiritual life, you should cultivate virtues. Because virtues are our “second nature,” the nature not which we are born with, but which we acquire. Virtues are habits, good ones; bad habits we name vices, from which we get the word vicious. The only way to uproot a vice is not by not doing it, but by doing positively the opposite virtue.

How do we acquire virtues? By the repetition of good acts. Just like we acquire vices by the repetition of bad acts. Acts build habits. When you exercise your freedom, you do so by concrete acts; acts build habits; good habits are virtues; and virtues lead us to holiness. This is why the virtues are at the focus of our program.

We don’t focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as we need to ask God to give those to us. We don’t focus on the sacraments, as we need to attend those anyway. And so, part of the “resolutions” may include the gifts and the sacraments.

For example, a wise Catholic who is desperately eager to overcome laziness will include as a resolution, “Three times a day, I will ask the Holy Spirit to give me the gift of Fortitude.” And everyone should have some sort of devotion to the Eucharist and Mary appear somewhere on their “resolutions” chart… remember, be very concrete.

After a year of exercising these acts, they should become habits. So it’s good every year, or three years, to check your plan, especially during a retreat, a prolonged retreat (such as a weekend or a whole week), a retreat with LOTS of silence. When you check your plan, it will be time to ask yourself, “Have I acquired what I set out for?” Also ask, “Are any of my resolutions habits now?” And if they are, cross them out, and think of new ones to help you live the virtues you most wish to acquire.

If we acquired one virtue every day, imagine how quickly we would rise to holiness!

            Consulting a good spiritual director – one who loves the Church and stands out for his knowledge of the faith, of preference a priest – would be a superb way to insure your  plan is well aimed. Also, you may wish to have some accountability with your spiritual director on your progress, good or bad, as this too is an excellent means for growth in the spiritual life.

            Alright, Fervent Soul, time to get to work. This is only a sketch, and I admit I used some words which carry a lot of depth with them. But don't worry, and get started: Pull out your pen and begin your work, for love of God and neighbor! Be warned: The hardest, most painful part of all of this is honestly assessing what your dominant defect is. Think about all the sins you have ever committed, mortal or venial, frequent or rare, and use your mind, with the help of God’s grace, to discern what is most common to all or most of your worst sins: that is your dominant defect. Then set out, without any discouragement, to acquire the opposite virtues, and know that the mighty angels will be helping you silently along the way.