“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
Thus Will Durant sums up Aristotle’s theory of virtue.
- First, human assent to God’s will is both a result and a means of grace. That is, a result of God’s grace is the ability to live a virtuous life, but the active response to that grace is the ordinary means whereby God chooses to open our hearts to yet more grace.
- Secondly, as C. S. Lewis pointed out, part of the point of striving to live a life of virtue is precisely in order to fail, and thereby to drive home the point that we cannot be virtuous on our own. It is usually only through trying and failing that we are forced into total reliance on God.
Now, the goal of becoming a Saint is not only incredibly ambitious, it is also largely unmeasurable. A saint is, of all people, the one person who is least sure that he is a saint, and most aware that he is a sinner. Thus, “becoming a Saint,” while commendable, is nto really useful as a plan of life. When I speak of a plan of life I mean a specific daily plan that is measurable and achievable every day. I also mean something that is long-term, (i.e. lifelong), something that can become a habit which changes us over time into people more in love with and more dependent on God.
Even the longest journey has to start somewhere. If we want to build a virtuous habits, there must come a day, an hour, and a minute when we start performing virtuous actions, with the intention of continuing to perform them the next day, and the next and the next. What better time to start a new habit than lent?
Accordingly, this is the plan of life that I am going to implement this lent:
- Daily Prayer: This is a set duration of time which is set aside every day for talking with God and listening to Him. There is no multi-tasking during prayer time. There is no “time management.” The point of time management is so that I will have this time for God (the same is true of family time).
- Daily Study: This is a commitment to a little bit of reading every day. It is not necessarily “useful” reading (such as professional journals) but reading that will stretch my intellect, imagination or heart. This can include philosophy, theology, history, fiction, poetry, and a host of other genres. Realistically much of it will be in the form of listening to audio books in the car.
- Daily Training: This is my commitment to use my body to glorify God in some way every day. I already workout most days, but this need not be limited to fitness training. Some people will use their bodies to glorify God by practicing some hobby such as knitting, singing, dancing, painting, or fixing small engines.
- Daily Self-denial: The biggest obstacle to the growth in holiness is self-will. To combat this, every day I need to deny my will in some way, by giving up some good thing that I want to do.
- Daily Act of Charity: Of course we are supposed to live in Charity every moment of every day, but I, for one, do not. In the vein of “it has to start somewhere” I commit to performing one act of charity every day.
Of course these raise the question, “What’s so hard or revolutionary about that? Aren’t those things that you should be doing every day, not just during lent?”
The answer is that there is nothing revolutionary about this plan, and it is all stuff I should be doing every day. However, sadly, I do not. I need to start. I must take the first step, and that is what I will do this lent, by the Grace of God.
For more details on this plan and how it fits into my larger view of the Plan of Life, visit The New Chivalry Project.
1 thought on “Lent: A Time for Building Habits”
Just stopped following a particular organization on Twitter for promoting some scathing anti- Catholic thoughts about lent. I think the link was for an article entitled, “I’m giving up lent for lent.” The piece harped on the connection between lent and ancient pagan rites of spring. It condemns the church for having adopted certain customs from other religious traditions as a way to bring Christianity to non-believers. First, the church does not hide the fact that this was a common practice. In fact, early Christians themselves celebrated the birth of Christ at the winter solstice to appear being pagan and thereby avoid persecution. But in its efforts to evangelize pagans, pagan customs were re-taught with new meaning so as to convert people. I see the church as admitting this without any shame on her part whatsoever.
There seems to be a grave error in presuming that, because the church reinvented certain non-christian customs, the church herself is practicing paganism! The endless tounge-clucking, sanctimonious criticism shows an obvious lack of understanding.
Of course the church has also been criticized for promoting holiness only for a prescribed time (lent), as has been stated in the article above. Yes we should accept God’s grace all the time, not just during Lent, but the Jews have their Yom Kippur and I’m sure other religions have their purification rites as well. What is wrong with observing a season of self-assessment where we can focus on where we have been and where we ought to be going? Isn’t lent a little like New Year’s when we look at ourselves and make resolutions?
Finally, if lent is a “man-made” thing, why is that bad? The holy mother church in her wisdom provides us with the tools we need to grow in holiness. That is her job, is it not?