ACAT 11: Lapses in Soul Care
What can we do to correct lapses in soul care?
So far, the formula has been kept very simple. Care of the soul is done for love of God, trust in God’s designs and in the sight of God’s gaze. What then, can we do, when we fall short -whether by deliberate choice or by underestimating just how difficult these things can actually be to accomplish?
First off, let us make this very clear: Lapses in soul care are part of the earthly human condition. Even with the purest intentions, we live and operate in an environment that does not readily support soul care. The constantly flowing thoughts, feelings and sensations of ordinary life make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate out the things that remind us of God at their very substance from the things that feel so good we look to them, and away from God, in their appreciation. It really does not take much to distract us from God.
What, then, when that happens? Once or twice, we can catch ourselves and gently turn our minds back toward God. Habitually, though, if we forget to do this, it can become very easy to focus more on what is right in front of us than what we can only recall through faith. Our bodies are great attention grabbers, and once they grab top billing, soul care drops down: first to an afterthought, and then to progressively lower levels of priority until it reaches “cut.”
It comes back, then, to cultivating a sense of awareness: of God, of ourselves, of one another, in that order. But if our soul care has dropped significantly, we may need to build our awareness from the bottom back up. By recalling the God-endowed value of others around us, we begin to remember the God-endowed value of ourselves; and then God Himself, Who Endows Value.
Sound spiritual practices are rooted in awareness, but when we find soul care slipping, there are also specific means of maintaining this awareness once it has been recovered. Catholics enjoy the sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession, as a means of directly eradicating impediments to soul care. Outside of Reconciliation, there is prayer, community support, pastoral counseling, liturgical participation, spiritual reading and reserving time for silence to get us back on track. That last one, reserving time for silence, was a practice championed by our Patron Saint Thorlak during his time as Abbot at the Augustinian Monastery at Thykkvibaer. More than just unplugging or refraining from talking, recollected silence is a deliberate listening. Consider the difference between passive silence and active listening to see how the faculties are enlivened and engaged by periods of deliberate silence.
Is there ever a point of no return, where we lapse so greatly that thinking of God seems hopeless? Not during earthly life. God is always a glance away. He created us, endowed us with infinite value and set us up with an incredible operating system. Nothing we do to ignore, forget or disown our soul can erase its existence… or its value. Our souls can never depreciate. Our responsibility, then, is to remember our souls’ value, and adjust our actions accordingly. It’s that simple.