A Spiritual Life

Reading today's Gospel, I was struck by Jesus' words to his apostles.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. ~Jn 14:12

The thought occurred to me, how do my life and works measure up? What does it mean to live this kind of spiritual life? Should I be praying and reading the Bible more? Should I be at church more often or devote more time to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament? Should I be looking for ways to bring faith up in every conversation? Did I provide enough faith experiences for my kids? Am I supposed to give all my free time to works of charity? Do I do enough? Do I do the right things?

In Thoughts on Solitude, Thomas Merton shares some wisdom on this idea.

The spiritual life is first of all a life.

It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived. Like all life, it grows sick and dies when it is uprooted from its proper element. Grace is engrafted on our nature and the whole man is sanctified by the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life is not, therefore, a life entirely uprooted from man's human condition and transplanted into the realm of the angels. We live as spiritual men [and women] when we live as men seeking God. And if there were not evidence of this everywhere in theology, the Mystery of the Incarnation itself would be ample proof of it.

Jesus lived the ordinary life of the men of His time, in order to sanctify the ordinary lives of men of all time. If we want to be spiritual, then, let us first of all live our lives. Let us not fear the responsibilities of the work appointed for us by the will of God. Let us embrace the reality and thus find ourselves immersed in the life-giving will and wisdom of God which surrounds us everywhere.

We don't need to plan great and glorious acts to be spiritual. Living in the moment, embracing the people and experiences we encounter, and being grateful to God for all of it is indeed living a spiritual life.

My lesson: spend less time analyzing and questioning the worthiness of my actions in life and spend more time being engaged in living the life with which I've been blessed.

[Source: Thoughts of Solitude, by Thomas Merton. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ©1956, 1958]