Dream Awakener

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So, as I share with you my rhythm of life or this year in the various categories, I am also encouraging you to work through developing your own rhythm of life in regards to habits that can help shape you into the kind of person that God is calling you to become.

Farrington mentions, "Many of the ancient rules, and even some of the contemporary ones, include very detailed descriptions of various requirements of the rule: the specific hours for prayers, the exact number of Psalms to be read, the amount of bread to be eaten, the number of hours spent in reading, and hundreds of other details.  Other rules, such as St. Augustine’s, provide only broad guidelines that are subject to individual interpretation, rather than detailed schedules and procedures.  How much structure you require in your rule is up to you; each of us operates differently."

So for example, perhaps you consider yourself a morning person there are certain habits that you prefer to engage in during the early hours of the day.  If this is the case, then you could reflect that in your rhythm of life.  Perhaps you operate best on a regular schedule, if so, being more specific could be really helpful.  Maybe you are the more spontaneous type, then being more general might be good.

What I would suggest is that you have some general and specific practices that you engage in.  Try it out for a month, and then see what is working for you.  Develop a rhythm of life ought to have some fluidity to it. 

One of the rules for a new "brother" in the way of St. Francis was, "You want to seek God with all your life, and love Him with all your heart… To choose God is to realize that you are known and loved in a way surpassing anything one can imagine, loved before anyone had thought of you or spoken of your name."

One last bit of advice for today when it comes to developing a rhythm in life, before I share with you my first category – God.  Farrington says, "Two things are important to consider in setting a rule for yourself:  paying attention to your heart’s desires and being realistic.  Taking both of these into account through prayer, meditation, and conversation with others, and using both of them to discern your rule, will help you develop a rule you can live with for a lifetime.” 

GOD

• Start and the day with God through a Psalm of the day.  Here are the Psalms of the day for this year:  Sunday: Ps. 24 Monday: Ps. 19, Tuesday: Ps. 82, Wednesday: Ps. 139 Thursday: Ps. 23, Friday: Ps. 40 Saturday: Ps. 63.  I desire to let the Psalmist teach me how to pray more honestly and about everything

• Throughout the day remember all of the good gifts that God has given me through prayer and thanking people verbally as well as in written form

• End the day with a simplified version of Ignatius practice:  Stop, Look and Listen.  To stop is to slow down in order pay attention to what God is doing.  To look is relive the day, looking at what God is doing around me.  Thinking about what was life giving and life draining, where I walked with Christ and where I didn’t.     To listen is to allow the Spirit to speak to me, to encourage me, guide me, or admonish me

• A couple times a month seek God through prayer and fasting

So take the time to think about this area and what practices you want to engage in when it comes to your relationship with God.  Our next category will be prayer, which like most other areas, is vitally connecting to God as well, but focused on prayer in particular.