Summer Time Spirituality
Since many of TrueManhood’s readers are in college, I think it’s important to take some time to talk about a spiritual life during the summer months. Many of you have a strong faith community and spiritual support system while on campus and many of you are heading home (or at least away from your group) for the summer; how do you keep a strong spiritual life going? Well, it’s easy to get back into old, bad habits when you go back into an old environment. Some of those old, bad habits might be as simple as forgetting to pray everyday. They might be more serious (with lasting effects on the rest of your life) like excessive drinking and promiscuous sexual activity. That said, here are a few suggestions of how to keep your spiritual life going – and growing!
- Pray daily. Take time (whichever part of the day is best for you) to make this a priority. As with any relationship, it requires that you speak and listen to the other person. God, in this regard, is no different. Talk to Him.
- Make Sunday Mass a priority, and get to daily Mass as much as possible. The grace received from the Eucharist will help you fight temptations toward old, bad habits.
- Stay in touch with your friends from campus. (Your good friends – NOT your nasty friends.) A support/accountability/prayer connection helps a person significantly. We are relational beings – created to be with one another. Your friends want to help you, so talk to them. It’ll probably end up helping them too.
- Do spiritual reading. Find one or more (good/orthodox) Catholic spiritual books and read. This might also include taking notes, journaling about what you read and/or about how it applies to your life or talking about it with someone else.
- Do your best to keep Christ first and foremost. I listed this last, but it’s not the least priority, but yet the highest priority. I write about Christ last so that you remember that it’s all about Him. Keep Him #1.
Man up!
Pontius Pilate, What You Did Was NOT Manly
I thought several times throughout Holy Week, as well as when I watched “The Passion of the Christ” on Friday night, that Pontius Pilate (pronounced pon-chus pi-lot) was not manly in his decisions to condemn Jesus to death. He tried, yes, at first, to tell the people that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Where he went wrong was when he worried about what sort of uprising the Jewish high priests would start and what the people would do. He let self-preservation win out over justice.
He’s infamously remembered by Catholics in our Creed (our profession of faith) “…He (Jesus) suffered under Pontius Pilate…“. This is because Pilate had the power to prevent Christ’s horrible torture, scourging, carrying of His cross and His death, but failed to act; all out of fear. He was a coward. Even the movie “The Passion of the Christ” (picture above from a scene with Pilate and Jesus) shows Pilate’s wife as a hero and a servant, with compassion and deep sorrow while Pilate simply looks on, worried about himself. Pilate leaves us with a good example of what not to do.
Christ tells us that we’ll be persecuted because of Him, because we follow Him and because we love Him. We should be ready and prepared to persevere. We prepare for this by training (prayer and fasting, mostly). When it comes down to it, who will you side with? Will you take the easy way out and deny Christ or will you stand firm in your beliefs, in your faith and in HIS love and witness for Jesus? Only time will tell.
Again, society tells men that we must look out for ourselves and self-preservation. Christ, the Church and TrueManhood.com say something different. We all say “defend Christ, defend Mother Church, defend Truth” – God will provide for us and will raise us up on the last day. A True Man does this. A man like Pontius Pilate doesn’t. What kind of man are you?
Man up!
Lenten Devotion – A Prayerful Man
Often times, society tells us that prayer is for women, young children and hermit-type religious folks. Not true. In order for all of us to know God, we must converse with Him. It simply wouldn’t work to not speak to my wife for weeks-on-end and expect things to be okay between us. The same goes for us and God. We MUST stay in constant conversation with God. It’s like any other relationship, it takes bothparties to be in relation with one another. God has proved to remain faithful (He has made many covenants with us, His people), we are the ones that must change our behavior and devote time to Him in prayer.
Men, be careful to not fall into the modern idea that prayer/spirituality is a feminine characteristic. Females have a beautiful spirituality, but that doesn’t usually work for us. (There’s a reason why most of the Mystics of the Church are women.) For me, my prayer life reflects my demeanor, my personality and my outlook; it’s rugged, straightforward and unwaveringly positive. Most of my prayer reflects my need for Christ as a fallen, sinful man working at changing for the better. It also reflects knowledge that our faith is the Truth and the fullness of it. It’s important that your prayer life and spirituality reflect who you are, because like in any relationship, both parties need to honest, open and real. It won’t work if you try to have someone else’s spirituality. The great news here is that there’s at least one Saint who you can emulate, one Saint that was like you. Find that Saint and follow them to Christ.
Man up!
The Power of a Purposeful Lent
Today is the start to the Liturgical Season of Lent. Lent is often times looked at as a set of rules about not eating meat on Fridays and a time of giving something up; a fairly militaristic/dictatorial outlook if you ask me. I’m not going to get into the specifics about fasting and why we do it, or about what the Church teaches about Lent. What I want to get into is the power that a purposeful Lent can have for a person. As with most things, if we choose to “get by” with the minimum, we’re not going to get much out of it. If, however, we decide to embrace the teachings and challenges of Lent, I believe that we will gain a great deal.
For many of us, Lent tends to be a time of re-commitment, year after year. In order for Lent to be powerful and to make a difference this year (as opposed to Lent being just a period of 40 days that bore no spiritual fruit – like last year), we must be purposeful in our decisions and lifestyle. I suggest that you write you plan down. After you write your plan down, read it regularly. I also suggest that you tell someone else your plan so that they can hold you accountable to your word. Do the same for them.
I suggest that everyone not only give something up (broccoli and peas don’t count) but add some things as well. I typically add a form of prayer, a form of discipline and a form of service to my fasting choice(s). This year, my wife and I (for our family) decided to only purchase the essentials at the grocery store (milk, bread, vegetables, fruit, etc. – the stuff that goes bad quickly) and to eat what’s already in the house, including, no meals out. It’s a fiscal decision and a simplification decision. I’ve made a commitment to making a workout a priority again, to praying the stations of the cross every week, whether by myself or in a group and I’m going to volunteer at least one day at Habitat for Humanity. The “give up” part of my Lenten devotion this year is to only consume water as a beverage, no other liquids (Pepsi, tea, etc). Ouch! In your journey, it might be too much to add a bunch of stuff. Add something, even if it appears to be small. If you can’t handle the small stuff, you’ll never be able to handle the big stuff. May your Lent be powerful.
Man up!
