Sowing the Seeds of a Strong Spiritual Life on This 3rd Sunday after Epiphany

Good morning on this Sunday, another chance for us all to "keep holy the Lord's Day." 

That's our priority, by the way, i.e., it takes precedence over everything else. Nothing else matters unless we can manage to worship and adore God on a Sunday, unless we can manage to make this a day of rest and a special "holy" day.

Each of us needs to determine how we will rest and keep this day holy. There are few specific rules to guide us here. Sure, we need to attend Mass. Sure, we're supposed to rest by avoiding "servile" work. And yes, one of the Ten Commandments does say "Remember thou keep holy the Lord's Day,"  as if we needed reminding. (Or maybe we did?) That's all it says - just those few words. There are no "suggestions" as to how we do that.

Maybe one way to look at keeping Sunday holy is that it could provide especially fertile ground for sowing the seeds of a strong spiritual life.

Of course, it's not like suggestions for keeping the Lord's Day holy - or for sowing the seeds of strong spiritual life, for that matter - haven't flowed from the minds of Saints for the last 20 centuries or so. We won't attempt to list or even summarize these. If you read good spiritual works, you've likely come across some ideas and suggestions from solid sources about how to keep your Sunday. If you haven't developed the practice of reading good spiritual works, well, Sunday's a good time to take a stab at it - as long as you make up your mind to consistently keep at it once you begin.

Given all that, we're not going to make any specific suggestions here. While avoiding servile work is pretty straightforward, how we "keep holy" our Sundays pretty much varies from one person to another. We're all unique creatures of God, made in His image and likeness. Each of us, body and soul can be distinguished from the other. Each of us has a personality that's individual and unique. We have our own talents and abilities. We're not robots mass-produced from an assembly line. And so our particular practice of keeping the Lord's Day holy will reflect our individual and unique character.

I think this can be called "liberty of spirit." It's a wonderful spiritual concept that permits each of us to come to God as befits our own unique combination of body, mind, heart and soul. Of course, we're all guided in common by the Ten Commandments, the teachings of the Catholic Church that comprise her Magisterium, and the virtues of charity, humility, prudence, temperance, and the like. And public worship, like Mass, brings us together in a common fashion.

But Mass, important as it is, central as it remains as a sine qua non of being a Catholic, doesn't encompass all the variations of pious practices available to us in our daily efforts to grow closer to God. And most of these practices should be seen and used in a manner that fits our individual temperament. There's no holiness in treating our piety as a kind of obligatory drudgery. It must come from the heart, guided by prudence and temperance.

Now, lest this "liberty" should come across as a "free and easy" way or "the lazy man's" way to keep holy the Lord's Day," let's take a step back and consider what it really means. Indeed, it's the opposite of easy. It requires us to, first, take personal responsibility in the matter of how we approach God. We need to be engaged with the process. Ticking off pious practices like saying a rosary, repeating a few aspirations, what you might call "mechanical" mortification,  etc. likely won't do the trick here if we're not fully invested, mind, body, heart, and soul.

That all takes work.

We need to evaluate what makes sense for us. That could entail study, trying different pious practices, seeking the advice of solid spiritual director - and much more.

In my own case, an apt comparison might be how I engage in physical exercise. I know my body pretty well. I try different things. Some seem to work better than others. Additionally, as the body changes over time, so too should the exercise routine. Injuries (which will come no matter how careful you are) add another layer. 

Of necessity, I engage with my exercise routines. I can surely do the same for my spiritual life.

If you're not on this idea already, try thinking of some other areas, like physical exercise, where you engage and apply different ideas and approaches. Maybe your work? I know I've had to really engage whether working for someone else, or, as is the case now, running my own business. Maybe a child who's particularly difficult, for whatever reason requires full engagement and a flexible approach. You can either ignore them, get frustrated, or do the right thing: find ways to break through whatever comes between them and you, or between them and their doing the right thing.

Of course, you can engage with your spiritual life any day. But Sunday should provide especially fertile ground for sowing the seeds of a strong spiritual life, don't you think? 

Happy Sunday!