THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY May 2, 2024

We've been considering the spiritual disciplines and why these are not biblical from a spiritual growth perspective but only add to the burden of traumatic stress. They become performance-driven exercises and overlook Christ's work entirely for the believing veteran, spouse, first responder, etc. I have known this from years of personal habit. Let me repeat this. Spiritual growth comes from regular attendance at church and conveys the means of grace to the membership via preaching, the Sacraments, fellowship, prayers, and singing. We read our Bibles to know God and what He's like, which is different from depending on our reading to produce spiritual maturity as we wrestle with the matter of PTSD.

At the time of the Reformation, the Church's understanding of key doctrines, such as Sola Fide (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), and Sola Christus (Christ alone), had shifted. The Church had adopted a hybrid Roman Catholic system of theology, which, in essence, held that salvation was by grace through faith, but sanctification was the responsibility of the saints through their efforts. This shift, a step backward, was influenced by promoting spiritual disciplines.

The protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century met with the Roman Catholic "counter-Reformation."1 Enter the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius of Loyola. The Jesuits became the driving force behind the counter Reformation. Ignatius attacked the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin specifically through his book, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius wrote from an ascetic and mystical perspective for the purpose of "greater spiritual awareness and growth," according to Pastor Jon Moffatt.

From a protestant standpoint, Ignatius attacked the doctrine of Sola Fide, grace alone. Thus, the Protestant Reformers taught against Ignatius' views. Martin Luther admonished his readers, "Yet all these seeming holy actions of devotion…are nothing else but works of the flesh. All manner of religion, where people serve God without his Word and command, is simply idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is; for it leads people away from the faith of Christ, and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness. In like manner, all kinds of orders of monks, fasts, prayers, hairy shirts…are mere works of the flesh."2

At the time of the Reformation, Protestantism had fully embraced Ignatius' teachings for 100 years. American church historian Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe observed,

"Puritans knew and used classic Catholic devotional works. The most popular, judging from the number of editions, were the works of St. Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas à Kempis’s perennial The Imitation of Christ, and the primers…It was not unheard of for a Protestant to pirate the work of a Catholic writer and present himself as the author…Perhaps most important, excerpts and phrases from medieval classics and Church Fathers worked their way silently into Protestant devotional manuals, sermons, and treatises and so were passed on to the laity."3

The church historian Richard Lovelace wrote,

"It is not surprising that Puritan writings are saturated with references to patristic authors. There are more references to the fathers than to Luther and Calvin. Puritanism is thus a bridge movement in which modern evangelicals and Roman Catholics may find spiritual common roots. Cotton Mather’s omnivorous spiritual appetite smuggled in many Catholic devices: short ejaculatory prayers, vows and intentions of piety, and day- and night-long vigils (depriving one’s sleep)."4

It wasn't until the seventeenth century that Puritan protestants began to embrace Ignatius' disciplines. Before the Puritans, the Reformers didn't mention the disciplines as having value for spiritual maturity. Instead, the Reformers spoke against them. Today, we find Puritan practices embraced in mainline denominations. 

The familiar "quiet time" came from Ignatius and the Puritan laity. Pastor Lovelace writes, "The Puritans added graces at meals, prayer with spouses, and household devotions at the evening meal. Beyond this they recommended continual short prayers during the day, and also “occasional reflections”—mystical insights drawn from the symbolic meaning of events and objects, a devotion tracing back to the medieval Victorine theologians. Puritans invented the use of spiritual diaries as a kind of Protestant substitute for the confessional."5

Let's be clear. Many of these formations are good. Scripture admonishes us to read our Bibles and pray at all times. The problem comes when we place more value on these practices than they deserve. Scripture directs our attention to trusting the promises contained in the Scriptures rather than the actions of reading and praying, etc. We return to works righteousness via our actions rather than believing in Christ in the Scriptures. 

I love the Puritans. We often miss the "subtle shift" back to a Roman Catholic understanding of how spiritual growth occurs. We are concerned about knowing our responsibility for each day before God. The Catholics taught that external effort produces growth. We don't embrace Roman Catholic theology outright. Most evangelicals are blissfully ignorant of the origins of many of the spiritual disciplines they hold and practice. Unfortunately, Dallas Willard and Richard Foster are more open about Catholicism's contribution in this context.6 

It might benefit me to present a taste of Ignatius' "spiritual exercises."

PAUL III, POPE FOR A PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE

The cares of the pastoral charge of the whole flock of Christ entrusted to Us and Our devotion to the glory and praise of God impel Us to embrace what helps the salvation of souls and their spiritual profit, and cause Us to hearken to those who petition Us for what can foster and nourish piety in the faithful. So Our beloved son, Francis de Borgia, Duke of Gandia, . . . has humbly begged Us to cause the aforesaid instructions and Spiritual Exercises to be examined, so that their fruit may be more spread, and more of the faithful may be induced to use them with greater devotion. And he has begged Us, should We find them worthy, to approve

and praise them and out of Our Apostolic goodness to make other provision in the premisses.

We, therefore, have caused these instructions and Exercises to be examined, and by the testimony

of and report made to Us by Our beloved son John Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Clement,

Bishop of Burgos and Inquisitor, Our venerable Brother Philip, Bishop of Saluciae, and Our Vicar

General in things spiritual at Rome, and Our beloved son Aegidius Foscararius, Master of Our

Sacred Palace, have found that these Exercises are full of piety and holiness and that they are and

will be extremely useful and salutary for the spiritual profit of the faithful.

First Annotation. The first Annotation is that by this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant

every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and

mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking

and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of

all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the

management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.

Second Annotation. The second is that the person who gives to another the way and order in

which to meditate or contemplate, ought to relate faithfully the events of such Contemplation or

Meditation, going over the Points with only a short or summary development. For, if the person

who is making the Contemplation, takes the true groundwork of the narrative, and, discussing and

considering for himself, finds something which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a

little more home to him —whether this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect

is enlightened by the Divine power—he will get more spiritual relish and fruit, than if he who is

giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not

knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.

Third Annotation. The third: As in all the following Spiritual Exercises, we use acts of the

intellect in reasoning, and acts of the will in movements of the feelings: let us remark that, in the

acts of the will, when we are speaking vocally or mentally with God our Lord, or with His Saints,

greater reverence is required on our part than when we are using the intellect in understanding.

Fourth Annotation. . . . For, as it happens that in the First Week some are slower to find what they seek—namely, contrition, sorrow and tears for their sins—and in the same way some are more diligent than others, and more acted on or tried by different spirits;

Fifth Annotation. The fifth: It is very helpful to him who is receiving the Exercises to enter

into them with great courage and generosity towards his Creator and Lord, offering

Him all his will and liberty,

Sixth Annotation. . . .When he who is giving the Exercises sees that no spiritual

movements, such as consolations or desolations, . . . ought to inquire carefully of him about the Exercises,

whether he does them at their appointed times, and how. So too of the Additions, whether he

observes them with diligence.7

At this point, you may be confused as to the reason for belaboring this point about these exercises. I began my walk with Christ or rather, Christ began His walk with me, in the summer of 1972. I was taught these disciplines as the sole means of growing in Christ. I believe you are a Christian veteran or First Responder, et al, who desires to grow in Jesus. Unfortunately, you probably don't know a christian teacher who suffers from traumatic stress who can tell you how spiritual growth occurs other than through these spiritual exercises.

My earliest teachers didn't realize protestant and evangelical disciplines they promoted originated in Rome. But my teachers were certain that if I performed these and other disciplines faithfully I would grow in Jesus. Everyone knew this. It was as certain as the sun coming up each day. ":Oh, and be sure you're in church on Sunday."

As we can see from Ignatius' writings, the emphasis is on the person performing these disciplines faithfully. Their growth is on them, not on Christ. The desire to grow in Jesus is noble, but misplaced. Christ through the Holy Spirit, applying the Person and work of Jesus to the believer via the means grace by the leadership in Church each week is the sole means of spiritual maturity. of course, God brings suffering into our lives periodically to mature us as well so that we learn obedience as Jesus did.

So, if you are practicing these disciplines, and not all of them are purposeless, remember doing them doesn't make you more spiritual.

________________________

1 //www.britannica.com/event/Counter-Reformation.

2. Tabletalk, 1626 AD. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/l/luther/tabletalk/cache/tabletalk.pdf.

3 Hambrick-Stowe, Charles E. (1982-01-01). The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) (Kindle Locations 596-602).

4 Richard Lovelace, "Evangelical Spirituality: A Church Historian's Perspective," JETS, 31/1 (March 1988), 31.

5 Ibid., 30.

6 Examples are forthcoming.

7 Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, trans. Mullan, Father Elder, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/exercises.html.