For over a thousand years, people of faith have used various methods to keep track of their prayers. The Rosary actually finds its roots in the British Isles. The first Christians to use beads with their prayers were in the Irish community of St. Colomba in the ninth century. Though the practice of using stones…
Stepping into Silence
Stepping into a rhythm of silence is counterintuitive to everything we practice in our society, but it has many gifts to impart.
A Rule of Life: What It Is and How to Make One
What is a Rule of Life? Monks living in community live by a common Rule. Benedictine monks, for instance, live by the Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule governs every element of a monk’s life: when they sleep, work, pray, and eat, as well as how they work out community issues, etc. Oblates of monasteries—lay…
A Daily Examen
The Daily Examen is pretty straightforward: Somewhere towards the end of the day, take 10 minutes and prayerfully look back on what you did and thought, and bring your day into the light of Christ. Traditionally, the two categories of investigation are “consolations” and “desolations”—inner spiritual experiences that accompanied the acts of the day—that can…
A Self-Examination of Sin with the 10 Commandments
Try to be as practical as possible in making your list of sins in preparation for confession. Think concretely. Think about what several sins may have been involved in a single act. Be sure to distinguish proclivities and temptations to sin from actual acts of sin (acts that may be mental or physical). If there is ambiguity, feel free…
How to Make a Self-Examination of Sin
When a leech wants to snack on your leg, it secretes a local anesthetic so you do not become aware of its bite. This way, the leech can remain undetected and keep leeching. Leeches are horrible critters; I only bring them up as an analogy—sin is the same way. When we commit a sin, we…
Feasting on God’s Word in the Wilderness
Have you ever needed to hear something over and over again for it to stick? Probably something a parent or your spouse reminded you of countless times before you realized it was, after all, the best thing for you? When my dad was a teenager, he was pretty rebellious, he told me. He didn’t rebel…
Lent at Antioch: The Spiritual Disciplines of the First Christians
The first Christians did not have the word Lent, nor did they have a season of forty days before Easter. However, they did practice the spiritual disciplines of Lent: almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. In the New Testament, we see all three practices together at the church at Antioch, where believers were first called Christians. Acts…
The Liturgical Home: Fasting as a Family
Lent is a pilgrimage of the soul, an opportunity to walk closely with the Lord in a path of repentance and renewal. From the ashes of Ash Wednesday to the glory of Easter Sunday, Lent is a beautiful narrative of redemption that echoes the enduring love of God and his unwavering desire to draw us…
Jump Back, Satan: The Spiritual Tune-Up of Lent
Lent is Like a Necessary Tune-Up Lent gets my attention. It is kind of a tune-up, and just like my car, I require this kind of fine-tuning at least once a year. Spanish reveals the very worthwhile pun of “auto examinación,” (“auto” referring to the self) or “self-examination,” and signals the forty days of Lent….
