“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
“Deep inside every man, there is a private sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being.”
Learning New Rhythms
Throughout your life there will be moments of great hope, tranquility, peace, deep emptiness, despair, and many other profound or mundane experiences. How we respond to each moment is driven by the makeup of our internal world. And it is our part to actively choose to shape that world.
Absent this spiritual formation of our inner life, the inane chatter that fills the mind and heart throughout our daily lives will choke out the potential for transformation. Understanding the role you take in forming your inner life is crucial for encountering the presence of God (and lingering with Him). The practices of the spiritual life are important because they hollow out the inner life of our thoughts, wants, attitudes, and opinions in order to make room for the Spirit of God.
“It is through purity of heart that the Kingdom of Heaven comes to us: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’, says the Lord, ‘for they shall see God” (St. Matthew 5:8). From this we learn that we do not achieve perfection immediately upon renunciation of material things and withdrawal from the world, but only after we have attained to love for God and neighbor, which gives rise to purity of heart. We must, therefore, do all things for the sake of this love and disdain all pleasure and glory, gladly enduring fasts, vigils, and every other hardship, enthusiastically engaging in reading and psalmody… Fasts, vigils, the reading of Scripture, and renunciation of the entire world do not constitute perfection, as we have said, but are means for the attainment of perfection. When we have not achieved love for God and our neighbor, it is vain for us to take pride in fasting, vigils, non-acquisitiveness, and the reading of Scripture, since perfection does not reside in these, but is attained through them; for he who has achieved love is pure in heart and has God within him, and his mind is ever with God and contemplates His beauty,” ~ Abba Cassian
Discipline and routine are not the point, they are a means to an end. Acquiring love for God and love for neighbor is our end. They can open a path for us to flow towards maturity. Essential to the path of union with Christ is discovering a rhythm that welcomes silence and solitude.
Blessings,
Joshua Hoffert
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Consider spending some time in silence, with your heart trained towards God.
What areas of your life do you long for God to speak into?
What areas of your life could you grow in love for yourself?
What areas of your life could you grow in love for others?