A New Rule

I'm now in Day Three of living my Rule of Life. After working on this and receiving the blessing of my spiritual director, I began to live in an intentional way according to my Rule of Life on the Feast of St. Elijah. You might ask what a rule of life is, and well you may. Essentially, a rule of life is a means by which someone comes closer to God (or really, to any desired outcome, I suppose) by virtue of lifestyle and daily schedule. The trick to all of this is to keep it reasonable in what the individual (in this case, myself) is able to sustain. The point isn't to set oneself up with an impossible standard that will constantly be disappointed.

For instance, part of my Rule of Life is to go to Mass every day possible. At first, I tried to appoint certain Mass times for each day of the week, but it immediately became clear to me that in summer, those early Mass times might not always be attainable. I am not concerned with what time or where I go to Mass as much as getting to Mass every day. 

The essential qualities of my Rule are silence and practicing the Presence of God. This doesn't mean I walk around mute all day! It means that I'm cultivating a spirit of interior silence and peace so that I can hear the whisperings of God in my heart. This is a means of drawing closer to God, a means begun by prophets in the Old Testament, continued by Christ Himself, and on through the Desert Fathers, hermits and anchoresses, the Carmelites, Carthusians, etc. to the present day. Interestingly, most major religions seem to have some form of eremitical life (drawing away from the world to open the inner world where God speaks to us). From the Catholic perspective, this is a vocation that is sometimes formalized and consecrated (such as a Carmelite nun or diocesan hermit), and sometimes is lived in private with a spiritual director, such as what I'm doing.

Now you may ask, "But... I thought you were gonna be a nun?"  This is indeed what I thought I was being called to for many years. Recently, I realized that I've been pushing too hard in one direction instead of living the life I have now, the life God has given me to bear fruit in closer intimacy with Him. This is the life I am trying to lead now. I am teaching, even though it is a difficult thing for such an introvert to have so much outward-facing energy all day, and I am praying. God will do the rest. If he really wants me in a monastery, He will get me there. The groundwork is laid out, the relationships are there with a particular Carmel. For now, my focus is on living my life here and now. God has given me everything I need, visible and invisible.

Therefore, I will now allure her
    and bring her into the wilderness
    and speak tenderly to her. Hos 2:14
(Mojave Desert, 2013)

In these summer weeks, I am writing and taking care of business in the periods of time I will be teaching come September. Writing isn't something I do for pleasure, mind you. It's more out of necessity. During the school year (especially this past year, which was extremely difficult for a variety of reasons), making time for writing is much harder. Now's the time I have to push forward with the two writing projects I've been baby-stepping for the last few years. 

This Rule I've created isn't something artificial that I'm tacking on; it's rather a crystallization of the things I've been doing for a while, now. It's just a bit more formalized, and with increased accountability. I will write more about how this shapes up in the coming months. If you have prayer intentions, please let me know. God bless you!

A blessed Feast of St. Mary Magdalene!