We try hard. Most times too hard to be perfect. And when we fail, we become guilty and fall harder. What is it about sin that makes it so hard to conquer? Why are we moved into temptation, failing once again?
Father Philip Dion wrote A Handbook of Spiritual Perfection to help us along our journey enabling us to come face to face with what is causing us to fail. He also reveals to us how to dig deep and find the root of sin, guiding us to become spiritually perfect by prayer and meditation.
1. Get Motivated!
Sin conquers us and makes us feel like we cannot stop it but continue to sin. This is where we have to push forward. Begin by meditating on the nature of the sin or attack, and mull over “all the strong reasons for and benefits of having the virtue or not having the vice.”
2. Pray, always
If we live a life where the Lord is continually on our mind, we will live in line with our faith. When we don’t pray, or only pray at Mass or some other “designated time,” then it is simple to leave our faith behind. Using our power of mental prayer we can think like God and is the “greatest kind of intellectual activity possible.”
3. Work on your faults
No one likes to agree they are wrong, but we are not helping ourselves when we don’t. It’s not only identifying the sin, but we also have to get to the root of the cause. “By finding out and attacking our root fault, we are able to combat many of its manifestations at the same time.
4. Allow God to work
God loves you and everything that occurs to you. The Lord tells us, “Not a hair of your head shall perish without his knowledge and without his permission.” While these events seem unimportant, God even cares about this event in our lives! His aim is to make us more like him, we have to let him do it!
5. Be Humble
Sounds easy enough, but it will be the most difficult thing we will ever have to do.
Humility means that we shape our conduct in line with the truth.
We like to seem smarter, brighter, funnier, better than those around us. Society tells us we must be proud, strong, and will not be pushed around, but this is not the model Christ gave us. Humility is total submission to God’s will alone. Jesus could have come as a strong god, ruling over with loud power and might. But no, rather he was born, in the most humble way. He humbled himself to be our instance of how to be obedient to God. Rather, we must be proud, strong and not pushed around by the world in who we are in Christ!
6. Persevere
We are human and will fail, but if we “keep our eyes on the prize,” keep close to God, we can be as St. Paul said, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”
