A Ramble About Spiritual Exercises

Some time ago, I worked at a facility for troubled teenage boys. Their troubles ranged anywhere from having anger issues to having committed murder; from being raped to being the rapist. Some were just kids who hadn't been given a chance, others were truly disturbed mentally and emotionally. It was a job that wasn't for everyone, and could be extremely stressful on a regular basis as you never knew what was going to happen next, or whether some kid was going to try and severely hurt you or kill you.

Under it all however, they were all crying out, in their own ways, to be cared about and to have positive attention paid towards them. I realized that working there, at least for me, required a kind of spiritual discipline which had to be adhered to. Jesus taught to bless those who curse you. I was called various profane names every five minutes, and often wondered if I was doing something wrong if I wasn't. Jesus taught to good to those who hate you. I was told I was hated, verbally and non-verbally, from the time I started my shift to the time they went to bed at night. Jesus taught to love your enemies. I was seen as their enemy just by virtue of the fact I was staff and followed the guidelines, no matter what I did.

When I later worked at another facility, this one in the girls house, I took that understanding with me. I was fortunate that the girls weren't quite so aggressive, but again it required the same spiritual discipline. In the girl's house I was scratched by nails dug deep into my skin, bitten frequently, punched, and my nose was broken once from a head butt. Jesus taught to love your enemies. He taught to forgive, and you will be forgiven. He taught that God is good even to the ungrateful and to the wicked, and so I was to emulate Him and be as much of a father to those girls as He was to me.

I can't say I exercised that spiritual discipline perfectly. I didn't. I failed. I got stressed out. I did and said things I shouldn't have more frequently than not. But that's the thing about a discipline, it assumes that you aren't finished yet, and it's there to teach you and shape you closer to the end result.

There are a great many spiritual disciplines and spiritual exercises in the Christian tradition. Most of these come from the monastic traditions and involve fasting, chastity, poverty, humility, prayer and meditation; all of which are good and healthy for spiritual growth, but cannot be allowed to become an end of themselves, or else they are self-defeating. The true spiritual discipline is as our brother St. Paul says:

1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service [latreia]. (Romans 12:1, WEB, brackets added)

This spiritual service, in the Greek “latreia”, literally means the kind of service which a priest provides at the altar or in the execution of his priestly office.

The spiritual exercises which count are those which we practice from moment to moment and in every decision we make. They occur in our daily routine and how we respond to other people, no matter who it is. Do we put how the other person feels above how we feel? If someone steals from me, do I prosecute him? If someone hits me, or abuses me, do I strike back? Do I put how my wife feels over and above my own physical desires? Do I accept a rebuke without comment? Do I cry out for the Grace of God in my own heart where no one but He and I can see, or do I proudly march forward into waiting temptations only to fail. Am I so afraid of not having enough, or do I only trust in what I can see, so that I hoard money, food, or possessions? Do I give to those who ask, or do I turn them away? These kinds of things are where the rubber meets the road, and these are the tests and exercises which we must face every day and which really matter. The prayers, and liturgies which we recite help in crying out to Him and in activating that ever present Grace, but they can never take the place of the true disciplines which move us forward towards our goal.