13 Skills of Modern Catholic Contemplative Practice: Overcoming Spiritual Sloth – Rising from the Couch of Complacency.

If you find yourself slouching in the chair of Peter, uncomfortable with what you think it means to be a Catholic, bored beyond what words can express, feeling caught in a conundrum of knowing that you have to do what Jesus says but either not knowing what to do or too lazy to put in the bare minimum to be saved, then you need to recharge your batteries. There is only one way to do that, and it takes energy, God’s not yours, and also a change of mindset (conversio morae) to convert your life from a couch Catholic to one who can’t wait to move deeper into the love that awaits those who know how to sit next to Jesus in silence and solitude and wait for instructions. Not fantasy. Not easy to do. It takes the road Christ made us to follow rather than the easy one that the Devil would like us to divert, one that leads to sloth and slovenly Catholicism– good minimally (maybe) but nowhere near what awaits those who actively strive to “Have in you the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2: 5) The series that follows give you some thoughts and actions to do to break out of your lethargy, the disese that Satan loves to spread. Grok and I collaborated on this series: my ideas, it’s reaching into the depths of my Lay Cistercian spirituality (New Wineskins) to pull out my thinking in a way you, the Anawim, can understand and listen at your leisure. Blessing. I add a caveat: these ideas are my own, drawn from sessions with the Holy Spirit and from Roman Catholic spirituality, enhanced by Cistercian spiritual principles of silence and solitude, as I understand them.

“Dear friend in Christ, many of us who call ourselves Catholic have fallen into a hidden trap—one of the seven deadly sins that often goes unnoticed: Sloth, or acedia. It is not mere physical laziness, but a deep spiritual weariness that keeps us stuck in routine faith without real growth in Christ.

Jesus calls you today: “Get up! Take your mat and walk.” With the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, these 13 Skills offer a gentle, practical path for the Anawim — those who feel spiritually stuck. All is free, but it will cost you your choice and your time. Come and Rest in Him, then rise with courage.

The 13 Skills

1. Skill One: Learn to See Deeper with the Eyes of Faith (Contemplation)
2. Skill Two: Learn how to survive as a pilgrim in a foreign land (Temptation)
3. Skill Three: Learn six questions everyone must ask and answer before they die (Foundations of Spirituality)
4. Skill Four: Learn how to approach the Mystery of Faith without frying your neurons (Visible and Invisible Reality)
5. Skill Five: What does reality look like? (Three Universes, One Reality)
6. Skill Six: How to use the golden thread (Linking Life to Heaven)
7. Skill Seven: Just because your road is rocky doesn’t mean you are on the wrong path (Surviving the World)
8. Skill Eight: Learn how to find food for the journey (Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration)
9. Skill Nine: Learn the meaning of mercy and how to make all things new (Forgiveness and Penance)
10. Skill Ten: Learn how the community can be the occasion for the Holy Spirit (Body of Christ)
11. Skill Eleven: Learn how to pray to allow you to convert your morals (Moral Thinking)
12. Skill Twelve: Learn how to create a system of practices and charisms (Schedule of Prayer)
13. Skill Thirteen: You know you are going to die. Now what? (Death and Resurrection)