Tag: James K.A. Smith

• Saying Yes to “Prayer Without Ceasing”

  In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Saint Paul throws down the spiritual gauntlet. He instructs his readers to “pray without ceasing.”

  For almost two thousand years now, Christian saints, nuns, monks, and mystics have been trying to unpack that simple three-word verse (just two words in the original Greek).

  What, pray tell, did Saint Paul mean? Did he expect us to go through life, every waking hour engaging in a never-ending interior dialogue with God, sort of like The Truman Show On Bended Knee?

  Or was he speaking metaphorically, simply instructing followers of Jesus Christ to make prayer a priority, day in and day out?

  This verse inspired the Desert Fathers and Mothers to recite all 150 Psalms, each and every day. A few generations later, it contributed to the earliest monasteries developing their liturgy of prayer at fixed hours throughout the day.

  And it was the inspiration for the Eastern Orthodox practice of “the Jesus Prayer” as immortalized in The Way of a Pilgrim — a practice of reciting the name of Jesus, and/or one or two scripture verses, synchronized with the rhythm of breathing, and literally “without ceasing.”

  I love the invitation to pray continually, but I am not a monk, or a hermit, or a pilgrim. Chances are, you who read these words are like me — immersed in the hurly-burly of modern life, trying to navigate a meaningful faith while getting enough sleep, getting the laundry and dishes done, and juggling far too many commitments and appointments.

  Compared to us, perhaps the monks and hermits had it easy!

  The Secret Sauce for Unceasing Prayer

  So how do we do it? I think Saint Paul himself left us an important clue, right there in 1 Thessalonians 5. If we look at the verses that immediately precede and follow verse 17, we get some insight into how Paul understood prayer:

  Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (I Thessalonians 5:17-18)

  Saint Paul serves up his mandate for never-ending prayer with two other invitations: to rejoice, and to give thanks. Joy and gratitude, apparently, are the secret sauce for unceasing prayer.

  Furthermore, he’s not just telling us to pray when it’s easy to feel the joy or the gratitude. Rejoice always. In all circumstances give thanks.

  Easier said than done.

  I freely admit that I’m not very good at rejoicing over a root canal, or giving thanks for lower back pain. Maybe learning to say yes to everything life gives me is the secret to prayer (and to true spirituality), but most days I need help getting there.

  Fostering the “Habit” of Prayer

  Our friends the monks and the nuns have it easy, in that they live in a community that is dedicated to praying always. But for the rest of us, regular prayer is something we have to cultivate, like learning a new habit.

  Likewise, joy and gratitude are also qualities that we need to slowly grow within us, like a vintner slowly cultivating a crop of grapes.

  Most of us may not have the benefit of living in a monastery where a bells calls us to pray seven times a day. But on the positive side, we are free to “grow’ our own habit of daily prayer in a manner that works for us.

  Chanting the Psalms may not be your preferred way to pray, but perhaps learning to find the joy and gratitude in every corner of your life might just be your ticket to a truly prayerful life.

  
  In his book You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, Christian philosopher James Smith explores how being human means being creatures of habit. Not just bad habits like too many candy bars — but good habits, too, from working out to expressing love to, well, cultivating a life of gratitude and joy.

  When we pay attention to the fact that we are, by nature, creatures of habit, we can begin to steer our lives into fostering habits that align with our highest values: like learning to always rejoice. To express gratitude in all situations. And to pray without ceasing.

  July 19, 2018

  James K.A. Smith, Prayer, Saint Paul

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• Learning to Love the “Habit” of Spirituality

  We human beings are creatures of habit.

  We brush our teeth in the same direction, we take the same route to work, we fold our clothes or make our beds in pretty much the same manner day after day. We like to sit in the same pews at church and eat the same kinds of candy bars. We shop in our favorite stores and sometimes we even have a particular method of shopping (look at the clearance rack first, then go for the new arrivals, and finally zero in on the item we actually need).

  Maybe you don’t do all of the above, but I suspect most people reading this blog have at least some of these habits.

  We want to break our bad habits (there are those candy bars again) and learn some new ones (why is the treadmill so boring?). We laugh at how predictable we are, and we excuse our grandparents because they are “set in their ways.” But truth be told, a five-year-old can be just as anchored in habits (good or bad) as any octogenarian. If we love a habit, we say we’re in our groove, and when it makes us restless, we decide we’re in rut. But either way, our habits shape our days.

  Here’s something I find interesting: even though habits shape our lives in so many ways, there’s one area of life where we consciously reject the force of habit: our spiritual/religious life. We say we don’t like “empty rituals” and that “rote prayers” don’t have much meaning for us. Nothing seems to be worse than just “going through the motions” when it comes to our faith.

  Why do we feel this way? I think it’s because we want our relationship with God to be alive, spontaneous, authentic. We crave genuine intimacy with God — not just some mechanical pattern that we cycle through mindlessly. In other words, we want to be wide awake when it comes to responding to God’s grace, mercy and love in our lives.

  That’s a beautiful thing, and I commend it to everyone. But maybe we need to rethink this idea that “habit” and “mindfulness” are at odds. What if the cure for rote religion is not getting rid of rituals, but rather learning to express our faith mindfully — even in the midst of our most routine ways of behaving?

  

  You Are More Than What You Think You Are: “You Are What You Love”

  This is the fascinating idea at the heart of one of the most provocative books I have read in quite some time: You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K.A. Smith.

  Even the title is a wake-up call: is there spiritual power in habit? Smith would say yes — and the secret, to meeting God right in the middle of our habits, is prayer — and love.

  Smith, a Christian philosopher and professor at Calvin College in Michigan, argues that discipleship means a lot more than just learning the facts about the Christian faith. It’s a matter of learning an entire way of life — shaped not just by what we know to be true, but by what we love. Naturally, Christians will say we love Christ. But do the habits of our lives reveal that love? Or, are our habits shaped by other loves — the love for security, for comfort, for the respect of others, for money, for power?

  Dr. Smith says that if we don’t cultivate habits that are anchored in our love for God, then by default we will fall into habits that are shaped by our lesser loves: habits oriented toward pleasure, or entertainment, or shopping, or whatever we like to do to pass the time.

  Whether we like it or not, we organize our lives around our habits. So what if we took control of that all-too-human tendency, and devoted our lives to creating beautiful and sustainable habits of prayer, of meditation, of contemplation, of expressing love for our neighbors as well as for God? What would that look like? How would it transform our spiritual lives?

  Make Spirituality an Everyday Habit

  What thoughts do you have about how we can harness the power of habit to foster a closer relationship with God? What “contemplative habits” do you have? Or are you trying to develop? Let me know — share your ideas with me on social media, or as a comment here. Thank you!

  May 26, 2018

  habit, James K.A. Smith, liturgy, Prayer, spirituality

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