Gospel music has been increasing in popularity for quite some time. Christian music has a wide range and reaches many people. There are many subgenres of Christian music, including Gospel music and Christian hip hop. There was a time when Christian hip hop was once referred to as Gospel rap or Christian rap. This type of music is defined as rap that aims to evangelize mission work, teach members of a Church, or for entertainment purposes.

There is some debate as to when this type of music first made its appearance. Some believe this music was first introduced around the early 1990s and was called Holy hip hop. Others believe it was in 1985 with the release of an album called Bible Break. Finally, there are others that say that hip hop always had a touch of Christianity to it, with many references to Christian themes. Since there has always been a presence of Christianity in hip hop, it made it easier for a subgenre of this New Gospel Music to grow in popularity. This introduction of this subgenre of music gives rappers the ability to share their faith through their music. The movement of this type of music has spread throughout many countries, including the US.

This is a sponsored post. From the Abbey made a small commission to include sponsored links.

We all know that things slow down over the summer. School is out. Parish activities stop, except possibly for a parish picnic. Every institution assumes everybody will be traveling or camping. So it’s understandable that we consider summer a time to take a break from everything – including our faith.

Summer activity and travel are undeniable. But our faith isn’t just some social institution that we can take a break from. Our faith is a relationship. It’s our most important relationship. What would happen to our marriages if we took summers off? What would happen to our friendships if we did nothing to nurture them for three months?

Besides, if summer is a time to take a break from the busyness of life, the real purpose of doing so is to focus on our relationships. What’s the purpose of vacation if not to reconnect with family? What’s the purpose of summer activity if not to connect with friends and loved ones? And our relationship with God is no different. Use the blessing of slower schedules, beautiful weather and longer days to nurture your relationship with God too.

How can you do that? Here are some ideas.

1. Lots of people make a summer reading list. Add a few good Catholic books to your reading list. Make at least one a non-fiction books and at least one a fiction book. Many Catholics are surprised to discover that there are a number of excellent Catholic fiction titles out there. In fact, during the month of July you can get 10% off any Catholic fiction title in our Bookstore! <<Click here to learn more>>
2. Take advantage of the extra “down time,” especially in the evenings, to go through a video course. Maybe there’s one that was offered at your parish this past year that you didn’t have time to attend. You can see if the parish will loan out the DVD’s. There are also great courses available online through Ascension Press, the Augustine Institute (if your parish doesn’t have FORMED yet, put a but in your pastor’s ear about it), and even some online Catholic ministries (like From the Abbey, for example).
3. Are you doing a lot of travelling this summer? Listen to good Catholic audio programs! You can get some really inspirational talks on CD or MP3 from Lighthouse Catholic Media. Check out their online store here: http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store?promoCode=99987.
4. Take advantage of the beauty of summer by letting it draw you closer to God. Uniting nature and prayer can be a very moving experience – and can even be fun! Take a nature walk and pray while you walk. Do family evening prayer around a campfire.
5. Don’t forget to stay in touch with a community of faith this summer. Why not have friends from the parish over for a grill-out? Or invite a few families to join you at a park for a day of fun. Let conversation naturally revolve around the faith, since that’s one thing you all have in common!

It’s very tempting to just put the hard work of spirituality on the back burner for the summer. But summer offers us so many opportunities to grow in our faith. If you take advantage of it, you may just find you have a better summer than you ever imagined you would!

What ideas do you have for keeping God in your summer? Please share them in the comments!

During Christmas, God enters the world as a human baby to dwell among us. The Incarnation and the Nativity of our Blessed Lord is such an amazing, multi-layered gift that the best I can hop to do in this reflection is to get you started on your own reflection of the awesome, wondrous gift that Jesus is.

1. By uniting Divine Nature to human nature, Jesus truly is Emmanuel – God with us. God’s presence through Jesus was foreshadowed in God’s presence in the Arc of the Covenant at the time of Moses. The Arc was housed in the Tabernacle and a cloud and ball of flame settled on the Tabernacle to signify God’s presence there. In Jesus, God came to personally walk among us.
2. By taking on a human body, Jesus made it truly possible for God to have a human relationship with us. Saint Francis De Sales even teaches that for this reason the Incarnation would have happened even if the Fall had not made Jesus’ act of salvation necessary. This is the pathway to Divine Intimacy for us.
3. Through His human nature, Jesus experienced human life to the full, including all of its joys and hardships – in all ways except sin.
4. By taking on a human body, Jesus made possible His sacrifice on our behalf. After all, the debt we owed to God was humanity’s to pay. But it wasn’t in our power to pay. So by being both God and man, Jesus was the only one who could pay the debt of sin.
5. Jesus’ physical body sacrificed on the Cross also became the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. If the Incarnation didn’t happen, neither would the Eucharist have happened.
6. Again, the Eucharist is the ultimate source of intimacy. Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity unite to our bodies and souls in the most intimate way possible.
7. Because of the unity between God and humanity, grace gives us the ability to become members of the Body of Christ. This isn’t just a sweet metaphor for a human unity. Being members of the Body of Christ is a spiritual reality. United to Him in the Eucharist, we join Jesus in His eternal loving self-offering to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. Because of the Incarnation we are empowered by grace to participate in the very Divine Life of the Holy Trinity.

There’s so much more to reflect on in God becoming human to dwell among us. What reflections come to you? Please share in the comments so we can deepen our reflection on the Nativity of our Lord together!

Decision making power and responsibility should reside at the lowest possible level of social organization. Higher levels of social organization should give as much help as necessary to help lower levels perform their tasks, but should not take the power & responsibility away from them.

Explanation:

Levels of social organization begin with the family, the foundational social unit. Gaudium Veritatis teaches that society is created by the cooperation and interdependence of families. A map of social order might look something like this (listed lowest to highest level):

• Family
• Neighborhood
• City / Local Community
• County
• State
• Nation
• International Community

This list is illustrative rather than definitive. Obviously there are levels between these levels, and other lists might look completely different. However, you can see how the level of social organization grows from directly within the control of individuals to more distant to the individual.

Individuals and families must be as directly involved as possible in (for example) trying to make decisions about the development of culture or in finding a solution to poverty. Obviously, families do not have the resources or the level of influence to do it all themselves. That’s where the higher levels of social organization such as government can step in to help. However, their goal should always be to aid the lower levels of social organization to do the task, never to do the task in their place.

Application

• The Constitution states that educational decisions are to be made primarily at the state level. Most school districts make decisions at the local community level, which is even better.
• State and federal restrictions on funding for schools and other local institutions interfere with subsidiarity and should be used very sparingly.
• Solutions for health care, poverty and other social concerns should first come from the local community. Federal programs should help community organizations rather than seeking to alleviate the problem directly.
• Care of children should happen in the family, where parents know the unique needs, abilities and personalities of their children. Childcare and schools cannot treat children as individuals in the way families can.

But the time you spend with each other does not always hold the highest value in and of itself. Quality and quantity BOTH matter. This is where I have personally gone wrong in most of my friendships. I am more than willing to spend time with close friends. I am not a good communicator. And communication is key to any relationship.

The best form of communication for relationship building is what some people call “True Conversation.” This term has popped up especially amidst the social media craze as something that our culture lacks in today.

Spending some time just chattering at each other is OK to a certain extent. When I get together with my best friend, Father James, our conversations usually take a certain pattern. We

1. Catch up on our lives – this could be considered small talk, but it’s also a pretty important foundation of a good conversation since we don’t see each other often.

2. Joke around a lot – we have a great sense of humor together and it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our relationship. This one isn’t really a stage in our conversation – it happens throughout.

3. Talk about issues we care about – mostly the state of spirituality within the Church, sometimes our shared interest in astronomy, etc.

But that’s where we usually stop. And that’s not good, and we’re working on that.

Small talk like talking about the weather or sports or some other small talk is easy. It doesn’t require much trust because it doesn’t risk much. When Father James and I “catch up” with each other, we are sharing a bit more personally. This requires a bit more trust and a bit more vulnerability. Talking about a shared interest is a great way to build a foundation for the relationship. It leads naturally into sharing your opinions and ideas with each other, which requires even more trust. You don’t know how your friend might respond. You face the possibility of a disagreement putting a wedge in your relationship.

How much more of a risk is it to talk about your hopes, dreams, fears, faults and failures? Yet, this is the point of true conversation that leads to true intimacy. That’s where Father James and I don’t go very often. If we want to deepen our friendship, we really need to get to the point of being able to talk about these deeper, more personal things with each other. Now – it’s not like Father James and I never talk at this level. But we haven’t really consciously cultivated this level of depth. And that makes all the difference.

So be sure to cultivate deep conversation in your most important relationships. It’s a very important part of strategic and deliberate relationship building. You can learn more strategies for deliberately building good Catholic relationships in the “Rebuilding Your Inner Abbey” program. “Rebuilding the Inner Abbey” is an online program that guides you to rebuild that place in your heart where you can truly focus on what is most important – loving God and neighbor.

One of the rooms of your inner abbey is the Cafeteria, where even the most cloistered of religious orders gather to enjoy nourishment and fellowship. The Cafeteria of your inner abbey represents the place in your heart where you take conscious, deliberate hold of your relationships so that you can truly nurture them into relationships of love.

You can begin “Rebuilding Your Inner Abbey” by discovering the “Keys to Spiritual Growth” that unlock each of the rooms of your inner abbey.

I invite you to register for a FREE online course that introduces you to the Keys to Spiritual Growth. Just click here to learn about all of the important areas of spirituality that we need to nurture in order to truly live as God created us.
Click here now and begin the process of rebuilding your inner abbey!

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Leading other people into sin, either by bad example, poor teaching, or the appearance of sin.

Explanation

Within the human family, and even moreso the Catholic family, we are responsible for one another’s spiritual welfare. Our sins affect every other person in some way. Leading someone to sin is a grave evil because it jeopardizes their immortal soul. We must always be careful to be aware of the message our actions send others.

When we sin, and especially if people know that we are serious about our faith, we can send the message that the sin is not a sin afterall.

Some people who disagree with certain aspects of the moral law teach others that evil is good or that good is evil, leading others into sin.

We must not perform any action that may be perceived as sinful to others, even when it is not actually sinful. St. Paul tells people not to eat meat dedicated to pagan gods, not because eating such meat would be sinful but because others would think eating the meat indicated embracing paganism and foresaking Christ.

Application

• Christians who are dating sometimes choose to chastely live together or sleep together, but doing so makes others assume that they are sexually involved.
• Politicians against whom the bishops have spoken publicly are giving the impression that it is OK for Catholics to be pro-choice. The public stance of Catholic politicians teaches error and so is considered scandal.
• Catholic theology teachers who teach error are guilty of scandal because they lead others to believe that evil is good and good is evil.

First Key to Spiritual Growth: Taking Control of Your Life through the Virtue of Prudence

In the last two articles we explored the need to take control of our lives. We saw how we can make simple choices that slowly build up our inner sanctuary. Then we looked at the importance of embracing change in areas you can control rather than making excuses for your lack of spiritual growth based on factors outside of your realm of influence.

I gave you a simple formula for getting started taking control.

1. Recognize that the only change you can make is to change yourself. Make holiness your goal.
2. Bring your desire for conversion to prayer
3. Make a plan to overcome these two obstacles
4. Take control of your time
5. Take control of your environment
6. Start small and build good habits

Given our frantic culture and ridiculous level of busyness, the fourth step deserves a special focus. We are the most overwhelmed, overloaded society in history. Most of us cannot imagine adding one more thing to our busy daily schedules.

Unfortunately, this busyness is not the happy productivity we would really like it to be. Too often we find ourselves spending our entire day reacting to sudden “urgent” demands on our time.

How often do you feel like you spent the entire day working on busyness and got absolutely nothing done? I can’t even count how many times I have made this comment to my wife.

So where does busyness leave us in the areas of spiritual growth and Catholic learning? All too often it leaves us dissatisfied. We find that we are not taking time out for relationships, family, prayer, or learning about our faith.

So, before we can even begin to make a plan for spiritual growth, we are going to need to tackle the concept of Catholic time management. And our solution may surprise you – our solution is the virtue of prudence.

What is your biggest obstacle to growing in your faith?

• Distractions from my goals.
• Too many things–job, family, volunteering for church, trying to find time to maintain health with exercise and home cooking, trying to keep connected with friends. All the demands make it hard to focus on what is most important and find time for God and really LISTEN and HEAR what He has to tell me. I’m too busy to be able to do this.
• The pressures of kids sports, work requirements and not having personal time with my spouse.
• The world is so fast paced and non-religious it is hard to stay focused on what is important, God’s Will and to let mine go.
• Frustration w/self…seem to need more “quiet/think time” than my daily obligations allow (or so it feels). Then I don’t “work through” things adequately and they pile up creating spiritual and general grumpiness.
• to many committments in life that distract me from what I ahould be doing.
• [I need to] spend more time reading my Bible and living our faith.
• This year, I am working on grounding myself and everything I do in my faith. That means trying to lead a more balanced life that consists of the things we have to do to survive (like work, negotiate with co-workers, etc.) but yet find some time for God, personal relationships, nature, fun, etc. I’m working on setting some personal goals that will include reading a faith based book at least every 2 months.
• [I need] quiet time to myself
• I need time and peace! If I had more time, I’d be able to reflect more, pray more and balance my life out more. I’m working hard on finding that time wherever I can so I can increase my faith.
• time
• I work really hard (like many other people) and I’m driven often by secular demands–so I’ve tried slowing down and finding more joy in my life. Reading more faith based information and reminding myself that the secular world issues while important do not define who I am.

Boiling it Down: the Need for Margin

And the good news is that I have been doing some serious thinking about a Catholic time management solution – and I have found one I think you’re going to love!

What I discovered is a life management concept called “margin.” Margin can be understood as the amount of personal resources that we have available to dedicate to what we are doing. This energy is directly proportional to the amount of control we feel we have over our time. Busyness doesn’t only cheat us out of minutes and hours. When we don’t feel in control of our schedule, we get drained of energy. We have no “margin” – no emotional, psychological or spiritual resources – to deal with anything else that might come up unexpectedly.

With a sense of control over our time, we feel that we can take the time to do what is truly important. When something unexpected pops up, we have the personal resources to deal with it. We may not avoid stress, but we are at least not thrown completely off balance just because we have to pick the kids up from school when we were counting on being home early to get the bills paid.

Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it?

The Surprising Solution: Virtue of Prudence

The discovery of this concept of margin has led me to do quite a bit of thinking about the virtue of prudence and its relationship to busyness and Catholic time management. Prudence is the virtue of identifying what is truly good and important, then making a plan to get it. I realized that prudence is really the key to creating margin in our lives. If we could take the time to plan out our lives – to consider what our most important values are, to think about what kind of person God wants us to become and what we need to do to become that person, to decide to grow in virtue and to get rid of life-draining vices in our lives – we could take back control of our time. We could stop the busyness. We could direct our personal resources, including our time, to what is truly important.

Does this sound like a bit of a pipe dream? Does it sound like something that might be good to try . . . after things calm down a bit (whenever that may be)? Does it sound unrealistic in “today’s world?

My Personal Experiment

I was afraid of that. So, I decided to put it into practice while I was developing the idea. And what I found was that . . .

It is really hard!

Catholic Time Management requires discipline. It requires commitment and perseverance. And I have to admit that the area of life management is far from a strength of mine, so I have a lot to overcome to make something like this work. In fact, my own mother even laughed at me when she heard that I was thinking about developing a course in time management (shame on you, Mom)!

It is Possible!

But I also found that implementing Catholic time management and getting rid of busyness is possible. I am struggling, but I have made progress. And the little progress I have made in planning my life and following through with that plan has already reaped some major rewards!

It is Rewarding!

• I am on the way to losing 20 pounds by practicing discipline toward my health goals
• I have improved my prayer life! I’m not up to a regular prayer schedule yet, but I’m entering God’s presence much more regularly than I used to
• I have created more time to write and to work on my projects because I am no longer being bullied by the “urgent” things that pop up every day. I am disciplining myself to sit and work for longer periods of time. Not perfect yet, but improving! 

  Here’s a great resource for Catholic productivity oriented especially to Catholic professionals! This is one we’ll be exploring more in the future.

• I’m getting more sleep . . . most nights . . . because I am disciplining myself to go to bed instead of staying up to “catch up” on work I should have gotten done during the day!
• In general I feel much less stressed, hurried and harried than usual, despite adding a full-time substitute teaching position to my schedule for the past month.

And I really have only just begun the experiment. I’m still developing the course and it will take me a while to implement the whole thing.

Look, if I can do it anyone can do it. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife . . . or my mother. They’ll tell you that I am approaching this project at a great handicap. Yet, what I am discovering in my research, reflection and prayer is really changing my life! I think it’s something that you could really benefit from.

What Do You Think?

We can get rid of busyness. Then we can get rid of the excuse that we don’t have time to study, pray, grow in our faith. We can focus on what is truly important. And we will find true fulfillment in life when we do.

What do you think, you want to join me in exercising a little prudence in our lives and gaining some margin? Is this an area of concern in your life? Please leave your comments at the bottom of this article!

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Hey everyone, this is Jeff Arrowood, founder of the Catholic educational apostolate From the Abbey. And this is the first episode of a new webcast called “My Inner Abbey.”

In this episode we’re going to pretty much discuss what this broadcast is all about. We also have an awesome question about Heaven and whether it matters what religion we follow to get there. Just a light topic to get us started. AND we’ll take a look at a resource that can help you get started on growing in your faith. So thank you for joining me! Let’s get this thing started!

You’re probably asking, “What’s a webcast?” And that would be a very good question. Well, you might be joining me live on the Google Hangout, or you might be watching this as a video, or listening to it as a Podcast or even reading the transcript. This program is available in all of those formats.

However you are joining us, I’m very glad you’re here. My Inner Abbey is all about taking practical steps and creating usable strategies to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. The name is based on the metaphor of rebuilding your inner abbey, a place in your heart where you can shut out the distractions of the world for a while and focus on your relationship with God. The problem is that our inner abbey has been torn apart by sin and by distractions of the world and we want to repair it, clean it up and make it a fitting place to meet with our Lord. Now in reality the rooms of the inner abbey stand for different aspects of Catholic spirituality. In each episode of this webcast, we’ll visit one or two rooms and talk about very specific strategies for growing in each of these areas of spirituality. But first, we’ll always check in with you to talk about your feedback and your questions.

Entryway

We’ll start each show with feedback and questions. These are your questions about growing in your relationship with God. You can post your questions in the Google+ Community or on Facebook at facebook.com/fromtheabbey. Both of those links are posted below this video if you’re watching at fromtheabbey.com or if you’re watching on the Google+ event. If you’re listening to this as a podcast you’ll find the links in the show notes.

Today’s question comes from Maiv. She responded to a request for questions that I posted on Facebook. Her question is, “I’m surrounded by loving and caring people from different religious backgrounds. I constantly find myself wondering if it really matters what religion I belong to as long as I’m doing good. I have many people that I love who do not believe in God but continue to do good. So will we all find ourselves in heaven as long as we are good people?”

The reason I started our first episode with this question is that the answer really strikes at the core of what My Inner Abbey is all about. You see Maiv, Heaven is not primarily about being good. It’s not a reward for good people. That’s actually a pagan view of Heaven that has creeped into Christianity. For disciples of Christ, Heaven is first and foremost a relationship with God.

Original Sin made humanity into the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ story. We left the Family and embraced the inheritance. Now while God began mending that relationship throughout salvation history and slowly brought humanity back to him through the Hebrew people, the reconciliation of God’s family happened fully through Jesus. Our Lord invites us back into his family through his grace in Baptism, and then it is up to us to cooperate with that grace in order to grow in our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As we grow in this relationship Jesus continues to pour his grace into us, inviting us deeper and deeper into this relationship. And we continue to respond to that grace. Part of our response to that grace is to become good people because we embrace God’s goodness.

But without a right relationship with God, just being good isn’t enough. Every human person has goodness in them because we are all made in God’s image and likeness. But if we are separated from God that goodness is part of the inheritance that we are embracing in place of the Father. We are still ignoring the relationship. We are not becoming members of God’s family again. And Heaven means living as members of God’s family for all eternity.

Now, that said, I am not going to put a limit on God’s mercy. Only God can read the human heart. We do believe that God’s grace CAN save people who believe in other religions. Every religion is an attempt to know God. And God can give his mercy to anyone who is seeking him with an honest heart. That is totally up to him. But these people will not be saved through their religion. They will be saved despite the fact that they did not truly know God. And again – we don’t know whether or not God will save them. We believe in his mercy and in his justice. But what we do know is that God revealed himself through Jesus and anyone who doesn’t have an active, growing relationship with Jesus is really missing out on the joy of being members of God’s family in this world at the very least.

So Maiv to summarize my answer, Heaven and faith are all about having a true relationship with God. Being good is only part of that relationship, and we can be good without being fully engaged in that relationship.

Now I chose this question because I want to make the point from the very beginning that when we talk about spiritual growth as Catholics, we’re not talking about a program of self-development. In many ways what we talk about here will sound like a self-development program because we’re going to deal with some very practical ways to grow in our relationship with Jesus. But our main focus is first and always on that relationship. Thanks Maiv for that question. I hope this answer helped clarify that for you. Please feel free to follow up and we can come back to this very important question in later episodes, OK? And now it’s time to head over to the Library, the room in our inner abbey where we store all of our resources and aides for spiritual growth.

Bookstore

In this segment of the broadcast I’m going to take a quick look at the resources out there that can help you grow in your faith. Many of these resources are available through From the Abbey in the Bookstore and the links to them will be available in the show notes. But my purpose here isn’t to sell stuff to you. It’s rather to review resources to let you know what is out there. These are resources that help me in my walk with Christ and I hope they will help you as well.

This week’s resource is a Catholic fiction novel called Citadel of God. This is a historical fiction novel about St Benedict, who lived at the end of the Roman empire. Amidst the turmoil of the fall of the Roman Empire, St Benedict’s abbey becomes a sanctuary for everyone at one time or another in the novel – even for some of the corrupt Roman officials. It is not only a place of quiet and isolation, it is a place of order and beauty and most of all faith. But the real victory in the book belongs to Boethius, a Roman Catholic who is able to build an inner sanctuary even in the face of martyrdom. Boethius was Catholic, but he was also very well liked by the Romans. He was rich, powerful and influential. And he used his wealth and power to do God’s work. He would invite his neighbors – Christian and pagan alike – to his famous house parties where he would entertain questions of philosophy and theology, arguing in favor of Catholic belief. But in the death throes of the Roman empire, a so-called “friend” betrays Boethius and falsely claims that he was plotting against the provincial Roman governor. Instantly Boethius lost everything – his wealth, property, influence, power, and even his friends were all gone. Boethius was thrown in prison and sentenced to death. In prison, Boethius wrote his greatest work. In this work he discussed his condition and explored the reason he was still happy despite his grim circumstances. He concluded that his joy – a deep seated joy that was not dependent on his circumstances – came from the fact that he had a relationship with God, the perfect good and the source of all love and goodness. Boethius has built an interior sanctuary in his heart that – like St Benedict’s abbey in the mountains – was a place of calm and peace in the midst of chaos. Boethius’ relationship with God gave him strength.

This is what we need to do. We need to build an inner abbey – a sanctuary in our hearts – that keeps us from being distracted from our relationship with God.

Now it’s time to move from the Library into the Classroom, where we’ll get into the main content of the webcast – a lesson on spiritual growth.

Classroom

So this is the section of the show where I would choose one room from our inner abbey and discuss some strategies for growing in that area of our faith. The lesson today is going to be pretty simple. Since this is the first episode of My Inner Abbey, I want to share with you my idea of what this webcast will be. My hope for this broadcast is that it opens up a dialogue among Catholics about how to live our faith more fully and to grow in it every day. Now that doesn’t mean that you’re only welcome here if you are Catholic. I welcome any follower of Christ who can contribute to this dialog. But I do want to lay some ground rules for everyone.

I want to tailor this webcast to your needs, so I welcome your comments, your feedback and your questions. So my first rule is please participate! Let’s make the most of this social media. I will be keeping an eye on the comments during the live broadcast. So ask any questions or make comments there. Let’s make this a real relationship. If you’re watching this as a podcast or a recorded video, we can still interact even if it’s not in real time. Send me an email or leave a comment in the Google+ Community or on Facebook at facebook.com/fromtheabbey.

And my second ground rule is for us to stay focused on spiritual growth. I want us to focus here on growing in our faith – in our relationship with God. Please keep any debates about Catholicism vs. Protestantism or about whether or not God exists or anything like that for other forums. Let’s talk here about growing in our relationship with God.

It may be OK to ask general theology or apologetic questions, but please try to keep them related to spiritual growth for the most part. There are so many general Catholic apologetic resources out there – Catholic Answers forum, Relevant Radio, EWTN – I want this program to be uniquely focused. That said, if these questions are getting in the way of your spiritual growth, feel free to ask.

OK, so that’s the main focus of My Inner Abbey: growing in our relationship with God. but why did I call this webcast “My Inner Abbey”? I got this idea after reading the book Citadel of God by Robert de Wohl.

This idea of an inner sanctuary is not a unique idea. St Teresa of Avila uses the same metaphor in her work Interior Castle. St Theresa uses the idea of a journey from outside of the castle, through the rooms, to the center of the castle. The castle is your heart and at the center Jesus waits to have an intimate relationship with you.

The inner abbey that we’ll be talking about in this program is just a bit different. It stands for how we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus. Instead of journeying through the castle, we are rebuilding our abbey from the ruins made of it by Original Sin. Picture yourself approaching your inner abbey – walls falling down, doors locked, dirt everywhere. The first thing we need to do is find the keys to all of the rooms and get the rooms unlocked. Then we need to rebuild each room.

I am creating courses that I will eventually have for sale at fromtheabbey.com that will cover five of the most important areas of spiritual growth. The beginner’s level of courses are going to be called the “Keys to Spiritual Growth.” These courses help you lay the foundation for each of these important areas – unlocking the door of each room of your inner abbey. The advanced courses are going to be about rebuilding the rooms. these courses will offer ways to go deeper into each area of spiritual growth as mature disciples.

This webcast can really cover topics on any level – basic or advanced. It’s totally up to you. The courses offer an opportunity to go way deeper than we can get here. But the webcasts will give us the opportunity to interact with each other live while the courses will be pre-recorded. So my hope is that you will do both so you can get the fullest educational experience.

So that’s what I’m up to with From the Abbey and with the My Inner Abbey webcast. What do you think? Is this something you can get excited about? Please do leave me feedback and help me to create what you really want and need.

Well, that’s all I have for this first episode.

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Outline

1. By Jeffrey S Arrowood! Catholic Prayer – 3 Mistakes Most Catholics Make When They Try To Create a Habit of Prayer
2. Establishing a habit of daily prayer is vital for anyone who really wants a relationship with God. But it’s hard to do, isn’t it?
3. Establishing a new habit requires a lot of . . . Self-Discipline
4. Establishing a new habit requires a lot of . . . Time
5. Establishing a new habit requires a lot of . . . Strategy
6. Establishing a new habit requires a lot of . . . Perseverance
7. But remove these 3 mistakes from your habit formation and . . .
8. But remove these 3 mistakes from your habit formation and . . . form a firm habit of prayer
9. But remove these 3 mistakes from your habit formation and . . . enjoy a new level of intimacy with God
10. And you do want to grow in intimacy with God, right? That’s the whole goal of spiritual growth.
11. Mistake #1: Starting too big
12. Establishing a new habit is just like starting an exercise program
13. Establishing a new habit is just like starting an exercise program starting too big sets you up for failure
14. Establishing a new habit is just like starting an exercise program Don’t give yourself an excuse to quit
15. What to do instead
16. What to do instead Baby Steps
17. What to do instead Establish the habit
18. What to do instead Don’t compare yourself to what you think your prayer “should” be like
19. What to do instead Set yourself up for success
20. What to do instead Grow gradually
21. Mistake #2: Making your goal too vague
22. Mistake #2: Making your goal too vague “I want to pray more” is a nice sentiment.
23. Mistake #2: Making your goal too vague But there is nothing in that goal to signal when it has been met.
24. What to do instead
25. What to do instead Create a daily prayer goal that you can concretely meet.
26. Mistake #3: Stopping when you fail
27. Mistake #3: Stopping when you fail There is no doubt that you are going to fail at some point in this process.
28. Mistake #3: Stopping when you fail Dang.
29. Mistake #3: Stopping when you fail But failure is not the end of the learning process . . .
30. Mistake #3: Stopping when you fail . . . it’s the beginning.
31. What to Do Instead Practice the virtue of perseverance
32. Bonus Tip Don’t go it alone! You need accountability, training and support.
33. Bonus Tip Join a community of Catholics trying to grow in holiness together at . . .
34. Bonus Tip From the Abbey’s “Keys to Spiritual Growth” tutorial. <= Click here ! www.fromtheabbey.com
35. Brought to you by Jeff Arrowood, founder of the From the Abbey Catholic educational apostolate encouraging you to rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.

Let’s talk about some of your barriers to establishing a daily prayer habit. Then we’ll find out the right way to overcome them.

The Fruit of a Daily Prayer Habit

Establishing a habit of daily prayer is an important early step in Catholic spiritual growth. The first thing such a habit does for you is to get you into the more general habit of making God a top priority in your life. In human relationships we give those we love the gift of time. If we have to, we schedule that time (for example, making a date with your spouse). We block out that time and don’t let anything else encroach on it. So doing this for God means making him a top priority.

The second thing a habit of daily prayer does for us is to open us to intimacy with God. God will reveal himself to us if we open our hearts to him. This is true prayer. But again this works just like human relationships do. You have to spend the time. You have to listen. You have to practice opening your heart.

Overcoming Inertia

But if we want to get a habit of prayer we need to overcome our own inertia. That can be darn hard to do. Have you ever tried to kick a bad habit? Then you know what I’m talking about. Anyone who has tried to quit smoking knows that it’s more than just overcoming an addiction to nicotine. It’s the habit of having something in your hand and something in your mouth. It’s the habit of having a social anchor, something to gather around with other smokers. Quitting the habit means overcoming all of that in addition to the chemical addiction.

But the law of inertia has two parts. Not only does it say that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by a force, it also says that an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by a force. Establishing a new habit can be just as difficult as kicking an old one.

The Usual Advice

When it comes to establishing the habit of prayer, the traditional advice includes a simple formula:

• Pray for 30 minutes a day
• At the same time every day
• At the same place
• Using the same prayer form
• In a comfortable but attentive posture

This advice isn’t bad as far as it goes. It contains the basic idea of building a habit. Repeat the action until it becomes a mental pattern and doing it becomes second nature to you. But what this advice misses is the need to overcome inertia. This method asks us to go a completely different direction from the current rhythm of our life. That’s hard to do – not impossible – but difficult.

A Better Solution – the Art of Judo

A better approach uses the same idea that underlies the martial art known as Judo – “the Gentle Way.” One of the main ideas behind Judo is not to work against the inertia of your opponent, but to work with it. If your opponent pushes against you, you flow with his movement and then redirect his inertia where you want him to go.

We can use the same principle when we are trying to create a new habit, such s the habit of prayer. Work with your inertia by pairing your habit of prayer with something that you are already doing. Are you already in the habit of taking a walk or drinking morning coffee? Pray while you walk or while you drink your coffee. This method doesn’t take away all of your resistance to establishing a new habit. But flowing with the inertia of your life does make a new habit of prayer much easier.

Bonus Tip – It especially difficult to try to establish a habit in isolation. You will find much more strength if you develop your prayer life in the context of an overall spiritual growth plan.

If you need help developing such a plan, check out the free video series “the Keys to Spiritual Growth.” This series will introduce you to five areas of spiritual growth that make up a complete plan. If you choose to watch this video series at http://fromtheabbey.com and to participate in the spiritual growth challenge, you’ll not only get the guidance you need but also the accountability and support.

Brought to you by Jeffrey Arrowood, founder of the Catholic educational apostolate From the Abbey – encouraging you to rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.