By Gary Topping–
Since the very early years of Christianity, the religious life has been considered a model for all Christians, the most perfect Christian way of life possible outside of Heaven itself. Virtually all Catholics, I think, are grateful for people willing to embrace that way of life. We count on those people not only for their example, but also for their prayers and their spiritual counsel. Speaking for myself, though, and perhaps for many of my readers as well, we are all too inclined to leave it there and not to realize how much of the monastic life we can appropriate into our secular lives with only a minimum of effort. Here are some suggestions:
1. Pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
Breviaries are expensive and difficult to learn; they are not intuitive or self-explanatory. How fortunate we are, then, in this day of smart phones, to have a free app available—iBreviary—in both Apple and Android formats. iBreviary does all the page-flipping for you from one part of the book to another which can be so confusing, especially on feast days and memorials.
The Breviary recognizes six “offices” or prayer sessions, throughout the day, but most lay people are going to pray only three of them: Morning, Evening and Night Prayer. Religious communities have set times for each of the offices, but we can pray them whenever convenient: I do Morning Prayer while I’m waiting for the coffee to brew, Evening Prayer before I leave my office at the end of the day, and Night Prayer after I get ready for bed. Each of these offices take only about ten minutes.
2. Pray the Rosary
Maybe the rosary isn’t for you; if not, that’s okay. Some of the most spiritual people I know never pray the rosary. But if you do enjoy praying the rosary, it can be very easy to integrate into a busy day. Many people keep a rosary in their cars and pray one set of Mysteries while commuting to or from work
3. Observe silence
I never thought of this one until recently, when I inherited the diaries of a deceased friend of great spirituality. He would record the number of hours of silence he was able to observe day by day.
This is one place where members of religious communities have a great advantage over us lay people because they can just collectively do it. For us lay people who have jobs and careers and social obligations, verbal communication is necessary, in person, by telephone or by internet. We can’t just clam up.
On the other hand, I think most us realize that we lead lives that are unnecessarily noisy. We spend too much time on the telephone; we spend too much time in front of the television; we spend too much time yakking with friends over trivial matters. Just by taking thought, we ought to be able to turn a fair amount of that noise into silence.
I’m not talking about just empty silence. I mean a meditative silence, a silence we turn over to God, whether we are even praying or not. Sometimes listening is better than talking.
4. Daily Mass
This one is probably the most difficult for most of us because it is the only one of my suggestions that we can’t do anytime we please. But parishes schedule their daily Masses so we can attend before work, during the noon hour, or on the way home from work.
Living at least a partially monastic life can be easier than we think, and it can really boost our spiritual lives.
