HOW I wish we can have a massive ongoing formation about the intricacies of spiritual warfare, since in the end all our struggles on earth redound to that level! This is a basic universal interest. We cannot, should not keep this concern too private, isolated and pursued mostly in secret.
While there are intimate and highly specialized items involved, where privacy and confidentiality should be respected, we cannot deny that there are doctrines, concepts, strategies and techniques that also can and should be known by all.
And to think that these pertinent doctrines, concepts and strategies are dynamic since they need to be applied, then assessed, then purified, polished or reformulated perhaps, etc., in a vitally evolving process, we really have to find a way to make them reach the public in the most economical way.
We have to be quite open about them, even systematically bringing them to some appropriate public fora, if only to have regular reminders and updates and increase public literacy and, hopefully later on, expertise about this indispensable spiritual aspect of our life.
It’s kind of funny to note that in the long history of the Church and of Christian spirituality, hardly anything is done, in spite of our age of spreading communication, to popularize the intricate requirements of spiritual life.
We continue to remain in the level of the primitive dark times of the persecuted Church or of the feudal Middle Ages where spiritual concerns were confined mostly in convents, monasteries and some specialized groupings.
Any attempt to talk spiritual in public at present is limited to generic, motherhood statements, filled with bumf materials and other religious clichés that tend to deaden rather than stimulate, not to mention maintain, religious fervor.
The appeals seem trapped to effect only external, formalistic types of piety. There are hardly any life-changing stirring messages the spring from the live experiences of the messengers. That’s part of our ongoing crisis these days.
What used to be effective in ages past, the different schools of rich spiritualities and the officially acknowledged charisms granted to some persons and groups, have not been faithfully lived, and their need for updating neglected.
Truth is many people—in fact, I would say all of us one way or another—are looking for effective ways to develop our spiritual life and to be skillful in the unavoidable spiritual warfare in this life. But this longing has largely been unmet.
People, including the young ones whose stirring for the spiritual can be sharp and intense if hidden, want to know, for example, how to pray, or how to keep it going amid the many concerns in life. Getting engaged with God all throughout the day eludes them.
They actually want to know how to grow in the virtues but do not have ample support to pursue the goals. For example, to remain chaste, if the interest still flickers, remains an impossible dream.
They see glimpses of the need for the cross, for sacrifices in this life, but they get stalled if not hostaged by worldly distractions. Many want to get out of their self-absorption, but no one helps them, giving them ideas or simply encouraging them.
Their knowledge of the doctrine is spotty, if not marked by confusion and error. Worse, in spite of their fervent intentions, they get stuck in the theoretical level, not knowing how to translate doctrine into actual life.
The understanding of many regarding the sacraments remains poor if not wrong, as in superstitious. And the predicament is left uncorrected.
There are endless things to take care of. Our problem is that the proper formation gets stuck somewhere, and does not reach everyone. And for those with some formation, it is usually inadequate.
Personal spiritual direction is very limited, both in quantity and in quality. Few people receive it. Fewer still give it. There’s no stable structure to make spiritual direction a going and spreading affair. Many people do not even know, much less have a working plan of life that sustains them spiritually everyday.
Families, schools and other groupings like offices, farms, etc., hardly vibrate with spiritual character, because they are not trained. There’s a big gap between people’s secular affairs and their spiritual lives. Our current culture does not know how to close that gap.
These are some problems whose remedies and solutions everyone of us should be eager to find.
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