Tomorrow, tomorrow?

Guest came and went.  Relative out of hospital, thanks to miracle, and now in rehab.  nothing recovering from sinus infection, but for a week able to get to Mass, then home, then errands, appointments, guests again.  Spiritual direction came and went.  Fabulous!  Much to write, much learned. Soon.  But Advent is our time of waiting.... 

Thanks for waiting with me, on the Stairway to Heaven, for whatever is next in the Order of the Present Moment, remaining in His love.

The Nine S': Serenity

The ninth and final S is serenity.  This may seem more an outcome or effect than a standard of formation in our earthly and spiritual lives.  However, after examining serenity, we may affect our living in Christ in the present moment, living the Gospel Rule, through being serene.

Serenity is the state of being calm, peaceful, untroubled, unruffled and tranquil.  The Latin root, serenus, was used to describe the weather or sky as clear, fine, or calm, or as an expanse of clear, calm sea.  Such is the state of our soul when we are formed in the standard of the Nine S': silence, solitude, slowness, suffering, selflessness, simplicity, stability, stillness and serenity.

While serenity seems an accumulative effect of all the s', the state of being calm and tranquil is something we can attain by cooperating with the Most Holy Trinity.  The descriptor of clarity seems especially important.  Consider clarity of the night sky, a window, a pool of water.  Consider clarity of our physical sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  

Consider the clarity of our bodily functions--the air we breathe, the blood that courses through our vessels, and the various organs that are fed and purify the elements within our systems.  Consider the clarity of the inner senses which mirror the outer senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  Also consider the clarity of our spoken thoughts and inner thoughts; are they calm and clear, peaceful, tranquil, undisturbed?

There are ways we may affect the clarity of both our inner and outer "bodies".  For the inner, we gently wipe away the fog as from a misted window, or still the ripples by remaining inwardly motionless.  We bathe our souls in what is divine, inspirational, and pure.  We are refreshed by the Body and Blood of Christ, cleansed by frequent confession, partake of Sacraments pertinent to our state and condition in life. All is accomplished through love, and now we know that it is remaining in Christ's love and all the attributes of love (see 1 Cor. 13) in every present moment, that clarity and calm clear the fog of our inner beings.

As for our outer lives, we must make simple choices as eating fresh and healthy foods, drinking water, proper hygiene of body, tending to illnesses and preemptive measures to ensure the best health within our personal means, rest, and exercise.  We dress appropriately for the weather and rest comfortably as our conditions permit.  We take into our eyes, ears, mouth, nose and skin what is refreshing, healthy, pure and ennobling.  We read, listen, worship, absorb the purity of truth of the Faith, practice virtues, and love to learn to love God and others.

Are we amazed that serenity may be aided from such personal choices and life styles?  Does it seem we are not sacrificial or penitential?   Shouldn't we be austere?  Now consider Christ, our King.  He plucked grain on the Sabbath when traveling and hungry.  Even after His resurrection He grilled fish on the shore for the disciples to eat after a long day fishing.  Do we have instances of Him scourging Himself or not wearing proper apparel for the climate and times?  Did he go about unkempt?  No.

Christ shows us the Way, the narrow path to the narrow gate and door.  We are to sacrifice our vices, go and sin no more.  We are to eat His Body and drink His Blood, dwell in His word, have true life, eternal life.  We are to lay down our lives for our friends, enter our "inner rooms" and pray, be watchful, love our enemies, detach from that which possesses us, die to ourselves and remain in His love.  

We do not have to seek austerities when we have plenty to do in clearing our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits of hindrances to love.

The challenges God allows will come as needed for strengthening our souls.  We do not need to create hardships and trials.  Remaining in His love, we remain in His will. If we do all we can to live inwardly and outwardly with clarity of health, holy purpose, and His love, we will be composed of Christ's serenity, as well.

The Nine S': Stillness

Stillness is defined as a deep silence or calm.  It actually has various uses and definitions, all reflecting a fixed position, undisturbed by wind, sound or current.  Why is stillness not the same as our S' of silence and stability?  It has to do with degree, the depth.  And, as in all the S', we consider the interior and the exterior.  

There may be stillness of the body and voice as well as stillness of the soul.  If we attend to the stilling of our souls, the exterior will be like an unstirred pool of water or a motionless leaf.  The interior may be like the night desert sky.  We may still from outer to within, moving through rings of the senses, emotions, imagination, memory and understanding, to intellect and will in the heart of the soul.

St. Hesychios the Priest shares the following.  The intellect's great gain from stillness is this:  all the sins that formerly beat upon the intellect as thoughts and which, once admitted by the mind, were turned into outward acts of sin, are now cut off by mental watchfulness.  For, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, this watchfulness does not allow these sins to enter our inner self and so to burgeon into outer acts of evil.

We may go to the interior, to the intellect and will first, and be watchful.  Or we may enter from the outer, the exterior, working our way through stilling the senses, emotions, and so forth.  For those who are able to focus, to enter into the inner, to be watchful of the intellect's thoughts and thus to strengthen the will in purity, all the better.  The stillness will ripple outward, from the center of the soul to the exterior, calming the memory and understanding, imagination, emotions, and senses.

This stillness of soul redounds to the depth of stillness and calm of the Most Holy Trinity.  This stillness of soul washes from the inner to outer like gentle, lapping waves upon the shore of our existence.  It is essential to call upon Christ all the more to receive the standard of formation: stillness.  

Remaining in His love, we learn to be still, and are stilled by His love, in every present moment.  Stillness is the funnel from the inner depths to the outer realms in which we remain unruffled by situational storms.

Be still and know that I am God, sings the Psalmist.

Life or Death Crisis, but Remaining in His Love

Hope to be able to write tomorrow. Today got phone call and told of crisis situation with a family member so went immediately to hospital.  Home now, but will say that just a few days ago had mentioned to guests that I couldn't think of anything that would up-end or rattle remaining in His love.  And this was certainly a test...and a testament to the actuality of remaining in His love and the power and strength of His love: REMAINING.  His love is steadfast, and there is joy even in crises and tears, and healing now for the loved one survived although has quite a journey ahead.  But a good one, for she had wanted to learn more about remaining in His love before calamity struck.

Was able to mention to a couple family members, and just brief explaining of praying, remaining in His love, gave them strength, hope, and now desire to remain in His love.

Again, we are finding this is not a perspective, not a way of thinking.  It is an actuality, a living, eternal gift given by Christ, available for us in every present moment!  There is only goodness and mercy all the days of our lives...eternally...remaining in His love.

The Nine S': Stability

In the Order of the Present Moment, we consider the standard of our formation, the Nine S'.  Stability is formative to our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits for our souls must be firmly fixed in Christ, every present moment.  Stability in a person is the state of being sane and sensible, of not being easily upset or disturbed.  When we apply the definition of stability to our spiritual lives, we realize the necessity of not giving way or being overturned.

We stand firm in Christ in all levels and degrees, temporally and spiritually.  Of the Holy Spirit's gifts, we call upon temperance and fortitude especially to assist us.  Of course, if we have learned to remain in Christ's love, we develop a stability based upon the unfolding graces of being in His love.  At the same time, we recognize the seemingly constant challenges from the temporal and spiritual realms in the form of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual trials.  

Temperance (self-restraint, moderation) applies at all levels, and the degree to which we strive requires consistent courage against not only giving way to temptations but also in patient endurance in suffering.  Fortitude (courage) strengthens our perseverance. Remain steadfast within Christ's love and obey His command.

We have mentioned the importance of specializing in the spiritual life as opposed to being a generalist in various areas and interests.  Remaining fixed in Christ's love and His command, the Gospel Rule of Life (which is the root of all rules), allows the soul to withstand any temporal or spiritual disturbance.

Consider the course of one day of life on earth and the various possibilities of unexpected trials.  Consider loss of life or health (mental, physical) of self, family member or friend. Factor the loss of career, home, transportation, income, credit, land, food, heat, water, or other earthly possessions.  Ponder the disturbance we may experience when we simply do not get our way in a discussion or relationship!  None of us are exempt from temporal and spiritual upsets...unless we learn to  remain fixed in the stability of Christ's love.

And how can this be?  Can we truly have immunity from the trials of this world?  Yes, in His love we can, for He has overcome the world.  Of course, we will be amidst trials and tribulations, temptations and assaults temporal and spiritual.  Yet we need not succumb.  Or if we do waver or sway, or even start to sink, we call out, Lord, save me!  Jesus will stretch out His hand and catch us, and say to us, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? 

Stability of our bodies, minds and emotions is somewhat within our ability to buttress.  Eat properly, rest appropriately, exercise, work, play, smile; laugh and weep on occasion.  Yet the ability to be immune from the instability wrought by the fluctuations of the world and the consequences of sin (yes, our sins, too) is to courageously remain in Christ's love and obey His command to love others as He loves us.  

"What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?...No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us."

Among many options in choosing and forming stability, we know to receive frequently His love in the Sacraments of his Church, to be fed His Body and Blood, to repent and be absolved of our sins.  Dwell in Scripture.  We know to love remaining in His love wherein we remain in His will and His truth.  We love God and others within His love, and trust in faith that in Him the vacillations of the world will be calmed, for our souls dwell in the stability of Christ's infinite love, will and truth.

Dear members of Christ's Body, the Church,     do you see?  The stability that forms us is Christ's love.  Of course our bodies, minds, and emotions experience earthly upsets, and we will be tempted to sin, even falter or fall.  But the concern of the flesh is death, and the concern of the spirit is life and peace.  Let our souls steadfastly remain in His love, and stability in the Spirit of truth will alter our experience of the forces of the world.  Stability in Christ's love allowed the martyrs to sing through torture and to their deaths.  What about us?

The Nine S': Simplicity

Simplicity is rooted from simplicitas.  We are referred to simplex, which at root means single.  Simplicity encompasses what a single unit is or can do, which makes understanding or action easy, natural, uncomplicated.  Ponder simplicity. The aspect of the single unit assists in relating simplicity to forming our souls.

We have but one soul, one life, one mom, one dad, one body, one brain, one heart, one childhood, one adulthood, one birth, one death, one judgment.  We have one God in Three Persons, one Father, one Son, one Holy Spirit.  We have one Blessed Virgin Mary, one guardian angel, one Bible, one Body of Christ, one Church. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all. We have one actual moment as we live, now, moment by moment.

When these single units are considered, simplicity takes a turn, for society says there is safety in numbers.  We tend to feel secure with more, not less.  However, we cherish most that which is single, rare, irreplaceable.  So in our spiritual lives, we must learn to cherish simplicity, that which is least is greatest.  Love the one-of-a-kind.


In the secular world, it is said that one who is a "specialist" is more successful than one who is a "generalist".  It has to do with focus as well as specific knowledge and ability in one area of knowledge or expertise. So it is in the spiritual life.  How much more do we desire spiritual success, oneness in Christ?

If we strive to live in Christ in the present moment, to seek, find, and climb the stairway to heaven, we certainly need a strong focus as well as specific knowledge and ability in the spiritual life.  We must simplify our desires and distractions, as tending a  garden, removing that which hinders while providing all that ensures healthy growth. What do we desire for our one life in all eternity? 

So we assess and remove that which hinders us from our sole desire: union with Christ.  We then assess, learn and enact that which assists our desire to be one in Christ.  We may find that simplicity is learned and enacted in correlation with our awareness of that which complicates our temporal and spiritual lives.  A short-cut is to go directly to the interior to ponder, pray, and perceive.  Ask Jesus to help us come to simplicity.  

Soon we will know not so much what to eliminate from our inner and outer lives, but more what spiritual goods He wants us to focus upon.  When we focus upon the spiritual, such as to remain in His love, the interior and exterior distractions easily, naturally, understandably fall by the wayside. Previous strong desires will not hold us hostage, for we will find we lose interest in that which is not Christ.

For most of us, simplicity takes root gradually.  The process may be subtle, with only occasional bursts of visible or known simplification.  But by focusing on Christ, desiring to remain in His love in every present moment, the losses of temporal items, traits, habits, attachments and dislikes most readily fall by the wayside, according to His will and pleasure.  

For it is His pleasure that becomes our pleasure, to come to simplicity through various means both temporal and spiritual.  Whether we first detect the detachment from earthly things, or begin to comprehend the unfolding of a holy indifference, does not matter.  What is key in the standard of simplicity is that our lives become focused on Christ: His love, His will, His Church.  Within Christ, all else will be given us when, how, and where for we have need.

Just as St. Paul lists all the virtues, he says the greatest of these is love.  Jesus tells us to remain in His love by believing in Him and obeying His command to love one another as He loves us.  Perhaps we are seeing the ultimate simplicity is God.  Since God is love, love God.


Simplicity at its single-most valued, rare, holy, ultimate unit is God's love, love of God.  From this point, consider branches emanating from love of the Trinity to love of Mary, angels and saints in heaven, love of souls in purgatory, love of the living Body of Christ, love of Scripture, love of the Sacraments, love of the Church, love of family, love of friends, love of enemies, love of truth, beauty, goodness.  

 Love remaining in Christ's love, love virtues, love creatures in God's creation, love salvation of souls, love salvific suffering, love union with Christ in His life, suffering, passion and resurrection.  Love simplicity of life with, through and in Christ.  Simplicity flows naturally when one remains in His omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent love. 

The Nine S': Selflessness

As standards of formation, suffering and selflessness are in pinnacle positions among the Nine S': silence, solitude, slowness, suffering, selflessness, simplicity, stability, stillness and serenity.  In the spiritual life a pinnacle is union with Christ. 

Galatians 2:20 is a key Scripture for realizing the death of self, and suffering, as we have discussed in the previous post, is part and parcel of picking up our cross daily and following Christ. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me, insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.

In order to become one with Christ, we must experience what Jesus experienced on earth because unlike cannot unite.  By becoming as Christ through living in Him in the present moments, we will die to what we are and have been.  We will become as Christ by faith in Him who loves us and "gives himself up" for us.  Two cannot unite unless one becomes like and as the other.

Suffering is one way in which we become as Christ.  We die to self.  We become crucified with Christ.  But the grace inherent in suffering through, with and in Christ is selflessness.  In order to be as Christ, for divine union to be possible in Christ-likeness, we must come to a purity of selflessness.  What is it to be selfless?  We become concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than for ourselves.  Who are the others of our concern?  God and our fellow man.

Jesus gave us the greatest command: love God above all things and love others.  We are to be more concerned with the needs and desires of God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit than our own needs and wishes.  We must hear and know God's will and do it.  Our need must be His need and desire, and He tells us that He wants to love us and for us to love Him.  Remain in My love.  Jesus wants us to unite in Him, become one with Him, by remaining in His love.

When we remain in His love, we learn to love.  We learn love by partaking in holy suffering.  Holy suffering is that which God allows and offers without our having to go seeking suffering, or creating means of suffering.  A holy cross is one given by God, through His allowance in natural means such as illness, accidents, and consequences of sins.  There is no need to act in ways to make ourselves suffer.  God provides us with all that we need in order to be crucified in Christ, through natural sufferings, that I call holy sufferings.  These are sufferings born well for the love of God and souls.

When we remain in His love, we learn selflessness.  We learn selflessness by learning to love as Christ loves, as we experience His love while remaining in His love.  In this embrace of holy love, we experience this divine love enough to desire to love God and others with Christ-love.  Remain in His love, and Christ's love will permeate our bodies, minds, hearts and souls.  Selflessness is generated in Christ's loving absorption of our beings.  Incrementally we grow in holiness by love, in Christ, in His love. 

God is love, and His will for us is to love.  We live yet no longer ourselves, but Christ lives in us and we in Him.  Remaining in His love ensures selflessness, for in Christ we do the will of His Father: Love God and others. To grow in selflessness, is to learn and practice remaining in Christ's love.  We may begin now.  Remain in His love by living in Jesus Christ who loves us and gives himself up for us.  No longer us who live but Christ living in us, and by faith, us living in Christ, we will love and do likewise, as our Beloved. 

These matters can be actualized in our moment by moment temporal existence, as we live in the flesh,  in faith we live in Christ.  Learning to remain in His love will be one and many steps on the stairway to heaven.  Practice remaining in Christ's love.  Practice with acts of faith.  Will to accept with gratitude, suffering.  In His love we learn love of suffering and pure selflessness.  In Him, in His love, we will learn and receive His love, and in Him, to be love.

The Nine S': Suffering

Suffering seems most difficult to discuss as a standard of formation in living the Gospel Rule.  Perhaps the difficulty lies in the reality of pain.  Pain as a means of spiritual growth, in fact, the main means of spiritual growth, in fact as the means of our souls' salvation, confounds human instinct.  But it is human instinct in tendencies to temptations and acts of sin that required Christ's obedience to the will of the Father in order to redeem fallen mankind.  

Sometimes called the Passion mystery, termed by St. Augustine a "happy fault", Christ's way of suffering is key to life on earth and life in heaven.  That is why, in considering the stairway to heaven, each step is built upon cross-beam supports.  The very banister consists of cross-like uprights with connecting, horizontal handrail.  We must place our feet firmly upon the reality of suffering, as well as grasp the spiritual necessity of death, over and over, step by step.

Suffering and the next s of selflessness, hold the fourth and fifth pivotal position within the Nine S'.  We do not need to seek suffering, for suffering is a gift given by God to anyone desiring to live in Christ in the present moment and to climb the stairway to heaven.  The grace of suffering comes gift-wrapped for any occasion, and we must open and embrace with joy the blessed event.  Did not heaven and earth rejoice at Christ's birth, an innocent baby swaddled, then stalked by the many sorrows of the sin-sunk world of our human depravity?  From birth onward the Son of God suffered in His human form, just as those around Him suffered, just as we all do. Yet we are not yet perfected in suffering.

It is the triumph over suffering that became Christ's victory herald, and we must examine, expose, and espouse His way of the seed, crushed and fallen to the ground, buried, in order to bring forth much fruit (John 12:24).  Suffering is the seed of salvation, the seed of our success in living in Christ, the mystical force that with selflessness, creates and propels the soul in Christiological, co-redemptive unification.

The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual effects of suffering are painful. We exist in mortal bodies reacting from human instincts to pain. Yet the unitive reality of suffering through, with and in Christ's salvific suffering births selfless love. God is love.  It is His love, whether or not of our conscious awareness, that brings the joy, and that, too, whether or not consciously exhibited.

We do not need to feel or be aware of the joy or the love.  We only need to allow selflessly our lives to suffering whatever Jesus Christ, our Beloved, is suffering in any present moment.  His love instills the mystical means for spiritually ascending and descending on the stairway to heaven.  

Both movements are necessary, for our souls are lifted through mystical motion in order to learn and grow within Christ's loving union of selfless suffering, and our souls simultaneously descend into the temporal realm of redemptive action and reaction, of self and of and for our fellow man.  This is Christ's way of the Cross.

When the cyclical, spiraling, ascending and descending crescendo to the purity of perfection that God wills for any given soul, and the mission for which we were destined is fulfilled, then there is death no longer of the self, but also of the body, and the soul ascends to the spiritual realms there to live eternally.  

As to further mission, we realize the on-going love and interaction of the Most Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels and saints. In and from heaven there is spiritual utilization of souls who in perfected love praise God, who intercede and interact by divine commission, with and for souls on earth.  

The reality and purpose of suffering as a beautiful means of personal sanctification as well as tremendous spiritual benefit to souls and the efforts of the Church, are worth further study and prayer.  Meditate upon the seed crushed and allow this Word of Jesus to permeate our beings.  Accept and embrace crosses bestowed. Living suffering in Christ's way assures life for and benefits our souls, the Body of Christ, His Church.

By offering the blessed sufferings (gifted to us innumerably in our earthly lives) to Christ for His glory and divine dispensation, we will experience in Christ His providential victory over death.  Regardless the earthly, human pain, this faithful, mystical reality in selfless suffering is sheer bliss.

The Nine S': Slowness

Slowness

Why do we shy from slowness?  Why do we despise slowness?  Youth and many adults want to speed in tricycles, bikes, motorcycles, cars, trucks, boats, skis, airplanes.  We anger if the restaurant is slow with our food. We do not want to wait in lines.  We want fast-action movies and quick relationships.

We want internet connections faster and fastest, not just fast.  We don't want to read a "slow" book, and many don't want to read at all. We spend much time not wanting to wait for much of anything: to grow taller, grow up, go to school, get out of school, get a job, get out of work, go on vacation, leave Mass early to avoid the parking lot rush.

There seems an obsession with wanting all to come quickly: fast, faster, fastest. Yet consider creation, God's realm of perfection, even though we often consider it our world, our life.  How long did it take for the earth to form and develop to this current moment? 

How long did it take for man to discover fire, or Edison to discover electric light. How long did the Israelites wait for the promised Messiah--and then many choosing to wait even longer, not believing Jesus Christ is the Messiah?

How long does it take for a seed to germinate and the plant to grow, the flower to bloom, the tree to produce fruit, such as the oak with its acorn?  How long does it take for a rock to be worn down by water, or a cloud to accumulate enough molecules of water to be seen as a cloud, and then to rain?
How long does it take for a very fine wine to ferment and age?  For a musician to become a virtuoso?


Slowness is essential in the spiritual life as a means of quality.  We may wonder why it is the third S, following silence and solitude. Well, we cannot practice silence and embrace solitude without the aspect of slowness, for we must slow our bodies in order to experience our minds, and slow our minds in order to sense our souls.  Slowness is essential for truly embracing silence and solitude, for slowness allows for gentle unfolding and growth. 

In order to know Christ in the present moment, we must be slowed down in our moments so as to ponder Him, sense Him, experience His presence.  Do we pray slowly? Do we think about Jesus in the Eucharist slowly, or consume the Host slowly, sip His Precious Blood slowly?  Or are our minds rushing in thoughts?  

To practice slowness in our every day lives, in the present moments, first we must appreciate the value of slowness. Now consider the beauty of God's creation as well as many conveniences through creative graces He's given mankind.  


Quality comes in slowness.  Especially in the spiritual life, the development of a fine soul, the growth is slow.  God works slowly because we desire and think and talk and move too quickly.  The spiritual life cannot be rushed. God is not rushed.

Slowness enhances silence and solitude. Practice slowly brushing the teeth. Slowly eat, silently and in solitude sometimes, if possible. Of course it it possible!  In a large family, there could be planned opportunity to do something slowly, silently, in solitude.  Within the mind, imagine something slowly.

Drive slowly, walk slowly, play slowly, read slowly, think slowly, breathe slowly, touch slowly, smile and weep slowly.  Go to sleep slowly. Do not rush. 


Practice slowness in as many present moments in as many ways possible.  Slowness is possible, and the results will reap benefits.  Watch the moments pass slowly.  Listen and look slowly. Talk slowly. Smell and taste slowly. Sip, swallow slowly.

Either do the outer first, or if comprehending, enter the interior first and practice slowness.  Ponder God slowly. Consider the virtues slowly.  Pray silently slowly, meditate slowly. Love God slowly.  He will slowly come gather the heart into His, all very slowly, so slowly that we do not consciously know.  But if we begin to know, enjoy the peace slowly.  Enjoy slowly. Love slowly. Rejoice and praise slowly.


Some may call this learning watchfulness and attentiveness.  St. Hesychios the Priest wrote much about these.  By slowing the body, mind, heart and soul, we watch and become aware.  We begin to notice our vices and sins, and then we notice the first thoughts that engender vices.  Slowness helps us gently but readily stop the first thoughts of vices before they become enacted sin.  We watch and become aware of Christ, of His truth, beauty and goodness.  

We learn that slowness assists in all the virtues.  Slowness smooths humility, eases it throughout our beings. Slowness enriches love, causing it to grow and last. Think of any virtue, and consider how slowness creates a spiritual luminosity and beauty to each, for beauty is slow.  Truth and goodness are slow.  Slowness allows the body, mind, heart and soul to savor all aspects of life, the temporal, the spiritual, the eternal.  Slowness takes us to the Heart of Christ.  


For those who doubt the truth, beauty and goodness of slowness, try practicing slowness for three or thirty present moments.  Pray for the grace of slowness, and be mindful and attentive to the nuances of slow as well as the power and presence of slow.  

If anyone tries to convince that the spiritual life can be hastened by enforced exercises of piety and devotions, of external dress and food regimens, of austere bodily practices, instead slowly consider the practice of slowness. 

There is no fast track to holiness.  Jesus spent 30 years slowly living, learning, loving, preparing for His mission of mankind's eternal salvation.  So gently, thoughtfully, slowly, savor life in the present moment, for Christ is in each of them.  We will not want to rush past.