I’ve been blessed to teach strength classes with a group of women who have trained with me for many years. We know each other’s varied exercise strengths and weaknesses and we rely on each other for accountability and encouragement. We are all different in what we are good at in the gym, and in what we like to do, but that makes it interesting and challenges us to grow.
It’s the same in our spiritual lives. We are all different. We each have a different mission and anointing on our lives so it is important to pray and ask God to guide us in our spiritual practices. It is a very good thing that we inspire each other to go deeper with the Lord or to perhaps incorporate a new spiritual practice into our lives. However, we don’t want to compare ourselves to others because God works individually with each of us and it is He who should guide us.
St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta said, “You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.”
I believe the Chosen television series beautifully portrays the personality and mission differences between the disciples. Granted this is an artistic interpretation, but it reminds us that there is no one kind of Christian, no one road to growing in holiness and no one way to live out our faith. The common denominator for them and for us is staying focused on Jesus and using what we have been given to serve Him and others.
So we can ask ourselves: are we praying and asking Jesus to guide us daily? Are we faithful to the sacraments? Are we using the gifts and talents to serve God and God’s people? Are we examining our daily lives and giving thanks for how God is guiding us and seeking to do a little better each day?
There was a time many years ago when I had a deep conversion and I felt called to more spiritual practices. My husband did not feel that same call on his life, but he began to feel guilty that he wasn’t doing ‘as much’ as I was doing.
We both met with my spiritual director and he asked us a few questions … Do you attend Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days of Obligation? Yes. Do you go to Confession at least once annually? Yes. Do you give your time, talent and treasure to those in need? Do you pray daily? Yes. My spiritual director didn’t see an issue and reminded us that in different seasons of our lives we may be called to more spiritual practices, but as Catholics, we are called first and foremost to be faithful to the sacraments.
It is never good to compare ourselves to others. We can be inspired by others and we can take that inspiration to prayer and ask Jesus how he’d like us to proceed.
From 2 Corinthians 15:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, of course, you fail the test.”
May we be faithful to the sacraments and let us ask Jesus to guide us in how we live out the call He has placed on our lives so that together we can do great things for Jesus.