Recently I read that Pope Francis met with some young European men who were in the formation process to become Jesuits. Knowing that Francis himself is a Jesuit, I was interested in what he would tell these guys. One question that was posed to the Pontiff was how he suggested they communicate with young, unemployed youth? His answer was a good one, but disappointing if you want a specific formulaic, “here’s how you do it” answer. Obviously, the question points to one of those really difficult social issues. There is not an easy, ready answer.
The Pope told the soon-to-be Jesuits they needed to cultivate three qualities, namely, to be courageous, prayerful and creative. I like this response. Granted it is a general answer; in fact, at the street level, it does not even seem to be an answer. But surely it is good advice. And I believe it is good advice not only for young men on their way to becoming Jesuits. It is good advice for all of us striving to become more spiritual and to live a spiritual life. Again, there are not specific answers for how to live spiritually. The answers---guidelines---are general. It is up to us to make specific the ways and means by which we will live the spiritual life. And so I want to pursue in a little detail each of these three characteristics for spiritual living.
The first piece of advice the Pope offered was to be courageous. Courage is a big, important word. It is one of the classical virtues. Every major religious tradition has a place for courage. Some of the noblest stories of faith are stories of courage. Jesus is a great example. In fact, it is would be easy to understand that no courage, no cross. It is easy to talk about faith and obedience and the like. But without courage, none of these discussions would happen. Without courage, there is no faith. And the same can be said for obedience.
Courage plays a key role in my recent book with my business colleague and physician colleague. The good news, we suggest, is courage is not a part of DNA. There is no courage gene. We can learn to be courageous. And of course, we learn to be cowards! When it comes to courage in a spiritual sense, I do think it is easier to be courageous if I have experienced the Holy. It is easier if I have begun to develop some principles of my faith. But the principles have to be rooted in the heart---the seat of courage. These principles cannot simply be ideas. An idea is not yet a principle.
If we want to develop courage, I suggest we begin small and practice. I think we become more courageous by practicing it. Courage is not abstract. Courage, like all virtues, is an action. If I think about courage, it is not yet courage. It is an idea. Courage becomes real when it is an action. So to develop courage requires that we take action steps. In faith most of us don’t start with the cross! We start with faith crawling steps. It is things like acknowledging we are people of the faith. It is starting to practice things like the Sermon on the Mount steps. If we get easy with these, then maybe we are ready for the cross---if and when it comes.
The second thing the Pope enjoined the young Jesuits to do is become prayerful. That seems so simple. And it is easy to assume Jesuits can do this with no problem. But that is not the issue. The issue is ourselves. How do we begin to become prayerful and then develop our prayer life? Like courage, prayer is not prayer until we act. Prayer can be a concept---an idea. I can do a research paper on prayer, but it is not the same thing as actually praying. There are many ways of defining and describing prayer. I like to think about prayer as a relationship with the Holy One.
Prayer is some form of communication. It is easy to say communication is at the heart of relationship---and it is. Here it is easy to dupe ourselves. I may think I am very good at communication and, actually, stink. I know how easy it is to mislead myself about prayer. Key for me is intentionality. I have to intend it and then do it.
The past bit of papal advice was to become creative. That is great advice, but not easy to pull off. Generally speaking, people are not very creative. Most of us were as kids, but somewhere along the way, we become accustomed to routine and lose our creative capacity. But is it not gone; just lost.
I like to think about creativity in two different ways. One was it to be generative. If we generate things, we are creative. I have two daughters; that was creative! We can generate ideas. We can generate solutions to problems. And the thinking goes forward. As people of faith, we are called to generate the kingdom of God here on earth right now. We are called to create communities concerned with social justice. It is easy to see how often courage is related to creativity.
I also like to think about creativity in terms of life-giving. Where life happens, creativity has been in play. I can think about all the relationships, interactions and contexts of mine. I can ask whether I bring life to these---creativity---or whether I suck the life out of these? Do I add value or subtract?
Spiritual folks do well to take the Pope’s advice and, like the Jesuits, develop courage, prayer and creativity.
The Pope told the soon-to-be Jesuits they needed to cultivate three qualities, namely, to be courageous, prayerful and creative. I like this response. Granted it is a general answer; in fact, at the street level, it does not even seem to be an answer. But surely it is good advice. And I believe it is good advice not only for young men on their way to becoming Jesuits. It is good advice for all of us striving to become more spiritual and to live a spiritual life. Again, there are not specific answers for how to live spiritually. The answers---guidelines---are general. It is up to us to make specific the ways and means by which we will live the spiritual life. And so I want to pursue in a little detail each of these three characteristics for spiritual living.
The first piece of advice the Pope offered was to be courageous. Courage is a big, important word. It is one of the classical virtues. Every major religious tradition has a place for courage. Some of the noblest stories of faith are stories of courage. Jesus is a great example. In fact, it is would be easy to understand that no courage, no cross. It is easy to talk about faith and obedience and the like. But without courage, none of these discussions would happen. Without courage, there is no faith. And the same can be said for obedience.
Courage plays a key role in my recent book with my business colleague and physician colleague. The good news, we suggest, is courage is not a part of DNA. There is no courage gene. We can learn to be courageous. And of course, we learn to be cowards! When it comes to courage in a spiritual sense, I do think it is easier to be courageous if I have experienced the Holy. It is easier if I have begun to develop some principles of my faith. But the principles have to be rooted in the heart---the seat of courage. These principles cannot simply be ideas. An idea is not yet a principle.
If we want to develop courage, I suggest we begin small and practice. I think we become more courageous by practicing it. Courage is not abstract. Courage, like all virtues, is an action. If I think about courage, it is not yet courage. It is an idea. Courage becomes real when it is an action. So to develop courage requires that we take action steps. In faith most of us don’t start with the cross! We start with faith crawling steps. It is things like acknowledging we are people of the faith. It is starting to practice things like the Sermon on the Mount steps. If we get easy with these, then maybe we are ready for the cross---if and when it comes.
The second thing the Pope enjoined the young Jesuits to do is become prayerful. That seems so simple. And it is easy to assume Jesuits can do this with no problem. But that is not the issue. The issue is ourselves. How do we begin to become prayerful and then develop our prayer life? Like courage, prayer is not prayer until we act. Prayer can be a concept---an idea. I can do a research paper on prayer, but it is not the same thing as actually praying. There are many ways of defining and describing prayer. I like to think about prayer as a relationship with the Holy One.
Prayer is some form of communication. It is easy to say communication is at the heart of relationship---and it is. Here it is easy to dupe ourselves. I may think I am very good at communication and, actually, stink. I know how easy it is to mislead myself about prayer. Key for me is intentionality. I have to intend it and then do it.
The past bit of papal advice was to become creative. That is great advice, but not easy to pull off. Generally speaking, people are not very creative. Most of us were as kids, but somewhere along the way, we become accustomed to routine and lose our creative capacity. But is it not gone; just lost.
I like to think about creativity in two different ways. One was it to be generative. If we generate things, we are creative. I have two daughters; that was creative! We can generate ideas. We can generate solutions to problems. And the thinking goes forward. As people of faith, we are called to generate the kingdom of God here on earth right now. We are called to create communities concerned with social justice. It is easy to see how often courage is related to creativity.
I also like to think about creativity in terms of life-giving. Where life happens, creativity has been in play. I can think about all the relationships, interactions and contexts of mine. I can ask whether I bring life to these---creativity---or whether I suck the life out of these? Do I add value or subtract?
Spiritual folks do well to take the Pope’s advice and, like the Jesuits, develop courage, prayer and creativity.
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