Tag: Fortitude

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Meditation

What Are You Zealous About?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi there. I’ve been thinking a lot about the political drama and anguish that’s been happening in our country these last several months now and thinking about the riots that were taking place in the capitol. And not just that, but the hundreds of thousands- perhaps millions- of people who have shown up at political rallies in recent months and how much enthusiasm they have, how much passion there is, how they will make great sacrifices, drive long distances, spend money, all of these things over politics.

And politics is important. Let’s face it: It’s the business of the people. And some of the issues facing our country are really dramatic, perhaps the most important that have happened in 150 years. And yet, when I talk to people about religion or when I go to church, I find not even a fraction of the enthusiasm for the Faith and the spiritual life and the development of the conscience and the study of the Scriptures. And even in my own family and among my friends, I find this zeal for politics that is not present in the spiritual life.

And I’m not attempting to judge all of the people who care about politics- I certainly am a political follower myself. But really, it’s a question that I’m now asking myself, whether my every moment of concern about the things of the world- whether it’s politics, whether it’s sports, whatever it might be that’s happening- are those things properly ordered to my eternal good? Do I have the same passion and enthusiasm for the things in my spiritual life that I’m in total control over as I do those things in the temporal world that I have no control over? It’s a question that I’m really thinking about, and I hope this meditation is helpful for you, too.

Categories
Meditation

Go On Offense Against Self

TRANSCRIPT:

Something I’ve been thinking about is the need for us to develop a real horror for venial sin. Most of us have probably spent, at some point in our life, some time trying to fight a mortal sin. And then we get to the point where maybe that mortal sin is no longer a part of our lives, but these habitual venial sins that kind of eat away at us like termites might in your home. And so we really need to make sure that we’re waging a war against that habitual venial sin, the things that we’re just accustomed to confessing all the time. And maybe we don’t respond to them with the violence that we would a mortal sin, and we might even fall into a habit of just confessing them all the time. It’s like, “Oh I always do this,” right? Maybe it’s sins against charity or maybe it’s sins against temperance with food or drink or sloth or whatever the case might be.

And if we really love Our Lord and we want to imitate Him and be like Him, it’s not enough for us just to be on defense against these sins, right? Just trying to avoid sin. That’s a starting point, but it’s not really what we’re called to. After all, the greatest threat to our salvation is ourselves; it’s not the world, it’s not other people, it’s not Satan, it’s ourselves.

So we have to be on offense against ourselves. We have to recognize that that’s the greatest obstacle to our salvation. How do we do that? How do we go from being on defense against venial sins to being on offense against our self and our will and our pride? And the answer- the saints and the Church have given us the answer- is that we need to fast, we need to engage in acts of mortification, and we need to abstain from things. This is why traditionally the Church has taught abstinence on Wednesdays and Fridays, just to reinforce that war against our will and our desires. And of course, we need to do corporal and spiritual works of mercy because by serving others, by doing things for others, putting them first in our mind and in our hearts and in our practices, we are, of course, fighting that temptation in all of us to put ourselves at the center of everything. I hope that this has been helpful to you and will encourage you along the way.

Categories
Meditation

Precision In Our Spiritual Life

TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning, gentlemen. In my insight video for this week, I want to share with you the takeaway from this morning’s meeting that I had with the guys in the Padre Pio group. The degree to which we are specific about, obsessive about, particular about our goals and our processes and our achievements as it regards our spiritual life is probably proportionate to the odds that we have of reaching heaven.

When we track these things every day, when we’re following just how well we’re doing (or how not well we’re doing), it’s a little bit like the way we track things in sports. If you’re learning to play a sport, there’s a very particular way to play every position, a right way and a wrong way, and you practice it over and over again.If you practice poorly, you’re going to play poor and poorly, and if you practice well, you’ll play well. 

We take the same kind of precision and obsessiveness if we’re cooking, right? You don’t want to put any more hot pepper or salt or any other ingredient in that dish than really needs to be there, or else it’s just not going to come out right. Of course, we do the same thing, those of us that are in business. We have metrics and all the rest of it that we follow very specifically.

If we take the same kind of approach to our spiritual life, our odds of making it to heaven and our chances of having a lasting peace here on earth go up dramatically. And if you’re anything like me, Christopher can be kind of annoying with all of his requirements- and sometimes demands- that you do it, you fill in the blanks, you record it, you’re precise, you’re meaningful about all of your feedback. The truth is, of course, that he’s really doing us an act of charity by helping us to elevate our sights, perfect our intention, and take that next step in our spiritual life. 

I hope this moment has been valuable to you, and I look forward to seeing your insight videos.