Minute Meditations

Cultivating Spiritual Discipline

The word discipline comes from the Latin discere, meaning “to learn.” We need discipline of course in learning a language, a musical instrument, to drive a car or to love and stay in a relationship. Discipline is not helpful if it is imposed by an external force against our will (except perhaps when we are two years old). If it is to work, discipline needs to be freely accepted and followed. This is especially true of a spiritual discipline. And yet without discipline we remain locked under the control of our ego and its repertoire of fears, anxieties, fantasies and desires. We are free only when we can choose to say yes or no from a place of enlightened self-knowledge.

— from the book Sensing God: Learning to Meditate during Lent by Laurence Freeman, OSB

Sensing God: Learning to Meditate During Lent

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign Up for Our Daily Newsletter

Includes Saint of the Day, Minute Meditations, and Pause + Pray.

Skip to content