12 questions for spiritual growth
Jazz musician Charlie Parker said, “Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”
Many of us are so busy with our careers, our kids, our studies, or our ministries that we often don’t have time to live our own lives. Summer can be a slower time for many of us. It is perhaps a good time to take stock and pay attention to our own wisdom so our spiritual music can come out. Here are some questions to reflect on:
- Is your work your prayer or is your work prayerful?
- What do you pray for? How has what you pray for changed in the last year?
- Is your prayer life deepening or stagnating? How do you know?
- Is your worship life more or less reverent these days?
- Is your worship life more or less fascinating these days?
- Are you more fearful or more peaceful than before?
- Are you seeking God or is God seeking you?
- What spiritual promises do you rely on? Have you written them down?
- Are trials times of growth or times of despair?
- Do you pray for strength before you need it? Do you “pray ahead” before difficult times?
- Who are your models of holiness? How often do you meet with them?
- What is your spiritual practice? Can you write it down? Can you teach it to others?
Please share some comments about your spiritual practice and how it helps you pay attention to your own wisdom.
Very interesting post – I really enjoyed it … especailly #12. I never thought of writing down my spiritual practice but look foward to making that effort and expect it to be a valuable spiritual exercise. One of the questions I’ve tried to answer on my website is what the intersection of my faith and my personal finances looks like. These were two areas of my life that I used to try to keep separate – not seeing a connection. But over the years I’ve tried to have my faith serve to inform my daily finances. Do you think that how we save, spend, give, invest, etc. can play a role in in our spiritual growth or decline? I’ve tried to find resources that address the role of faith in our personal finances but it seems to be a topic that is woefully under addressed online. I wonder if you or any of your readers have thoughts on this? If so I’m very interested in hearing and sharing them at Catholic Personal Finance (www.catholicpf.com).