The Life of Virtue

For the past two years, I have suffered a particular type of severe physical ailment on nearly a daily basis.   This suffering has been debilitating and frustrating because I have never dealt with such pain, suffering, or limitation ever before in my life.   On many days over the past two years, I have found myself asking the Lord why He is allowing this to happen; asking Him how this is for His greatest glory.   I want to see that everything He gives to me, and everything I do, is for my good and His glory, but I just haven’t been able to see it all that well. God has funny ways of answering my questions, which are usually more like complaints.   He gives me a little wink and a proverbial elbow-nudge in the side to remind me that He does know what’s going on and that He’s still in charge. Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.   I was reading one of Ignatius’s letters to a friend, and I came across another one of God’s divine winks. ...

Several great spiritual masters (including St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis de Sales) direct disciples of Jesus to begin their daily prayer exercises with adoration of God.  This direction is simple enough to obey and implement after a certain amount of practice.  It seems, however, that disciples easily forget to adore the Lord once a set of difficult circumstances arises, or if they simply do not feel like following the instruction on any given day. This has been the case in my life during recent days.  Extended travel, fatigue, and rowdy, ornery children have unsettled the usual routine.  On my own first assessment, adoration seems quite impossible.  So does joy, which is supposed to be a wonderful fruit of a robust spiritual life.  In the eyes of a witness, the demeanor that I carry during such periods very well might seem contradictory to the adoration and joy to which I call others through my work and writing.  That's right, ministers and...