Dealing with routine

FALLING into routine, which is another name for spiritual

lukewarmness, is a common occurrence that we should know how to

handle. It cannot be denied that there are certain things that we do

day in and day out. Yes, falling into routine is a constant threat to

us. If we are not careful or, worse, we do nothing about it, it would

just be a matter of time when we would become spiritually numb and

dead.

  

            As much as possible we should not allow our routinary

tasks to muffle our enthusiasm and love for God and others. The

challenge is how to keep ourselves burning with love in spite of our

routinary tasks. In fact, if we are clever enough like the serpent

that Christ talked about, (cfr. Mt 10,16) we can even make use of

these routinary tasks as a way to nourish our love for God and others.

  

            For this, we have to see to it that we are always

activating our faith, hope and charity by making frequent acts of

faith, hope and charity in spite of the lack of gusto for them. Much

like everything else in our life, there are things that we should just

do even if do not feel like doing them simply because they are

necessary to us. These frequent acts of faith, hope and charity can do

a lot of wonder and can fan into a flame our waning enthusiasm and

love for God and others.

  

            These theological virtues, these God-given gifts are the

ones that enable us to live our life in a way that is full of love,

the love that comes from God himself. It’s a love that always renews

itself, not allowing itself to get accustomed, much less, bored by

what we do everyday.

  

            As the Catechism would put it, these theological virtues

“bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the

Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the

Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues.”

(CCC 384)

   

            With this love that the theological virtues impart on us,

everything will always strike us as something new. With it, the prose

of everyday is somehow converted into beautiful verses that are

engaging to both the body and the soul, the heart and the mind.

  

            With this love, we can manage to see beauty and find

meaning in everything, even in things, events and situations that

humanly speaking are not pleasant. With it we can manage to escape

from the shallow and narrow appreciation that our senses and our human

understanding can achieve of things in general. It lets us go to the

deeper and higher levels of reality.

  

            This love enables us to relate the material to the

spiritual, the mundane to the sacred, the temporal to the eternal, the

natural to supernatural. It connects us and everything else to God,

the source of all good things.

  

            Obviously, while these theological virtues are divine

gratuitous gifts to us, we also have to do our part to take care of

them well, otherwise they would have no effect on us. Thus, we need to

develop the corresponding human virtues which the theological virtues

are meant to animate. We can never overemphasize this point.

  

            It is also helpful that we try to train our emotions to

discern and appreciate the spiritual and supernatural aspects of

ordinary life, of the routinary tasks. In this way, we can better live

a consistent unity of life where the body and the soul, the heart and

the mind, the feelings and the convictions are integrated, and are

friendly and helpful to each other rather than being at war.

  

            The proper formation for this purpose should be done at

all levels—from the family to parishes to schools and offices, etc.