Spiritual Progress Requires Desire and Strategy

I wish I had learned earlier on the importance of two notions in all human achievement and especially in the spiritual life: 1) desire, and 2) strategy.

Desire is not simply vague wishfulness. It is tied to strategy. I desire some end. Now, I must take on the means to reach that end. This is strategy.

Strategy is a plan, concrete, experimental, testable. I propose tests to conduct, make records, adjust where needed, and continue. This is a heuristic process, self-correcting, like science. It is precisely what St. Ignatius of Loyola proposes in his Spiritual Exercises with the emphases on discernment and self-examination. Mental prayer is effective, says St. Alphonsus and St. Francis de Sales, to the degree that we make a concrete resolution, foreseeing possible difficulties and solutions.

Hence, I should always have a big picture strategy and smaller tactics to execute and organize that strategy on the concrete level from day to day. At different points, especially by the end of the day, I must go over the plan and the day, how it was executed, make records, note failures and successes, adjust where needed, and plan ahead.

The Prudence Required in the Spiritual Life

Prudence will be exercised first of all in seeking to know the will of God, in discerning the signs that authenticate it. It must know how to wait for certain manifestations before engaging itself in actualities that can be perilous. God, who is our Master, could not require the accomplishment of His will before having made it clearly manifest to us. He gives to Moses proofs of the mission He is entrusting to him. He is not angry when Gideon asks for repeated assurances of his new vocation. It would truly be presumptuous, according to Saint John of the Cross, to ask for extraordinary signs [NB: visions, locutions, dreams, miracles, etc.], nevertheless we have the right to ask of God the manifestation of His will by the means of His choice. Where there is uncertainty, prudence has the duty to wait.

It is moreover an art, to know how to wait; not to interpret too hastily a strong attraction, an event that seems to be a providential sign. It is also an art to know how to make a soul wait without discouraging it, without diminishing its ardor. Waiting cools fervor that is too impetuous, and unveils the obstacles to be met with; it thus avoids those failures that would crush the spirit. It tries and strengthens whatever attractions are deep, obliges God to give His light, and prepares the way for fruitful realizations. The great doers, such as Saint Vincent de Paul, were often patient temporizers.

Prudence puts the soul at the pace of God who has His time for every work and does not want to be outrun. When the time is come—and sometimes it comes suddenly—prudence is prompt and energetic as God Himself, and demands that there be neither hesitation nor delay in the accomplishment of a divine will that is henceforth certain, and for which the grace that is received could well be only for a day.

Prudence choses the means for the work to be done—not those suggested by the zeal of beginners nor by the desire for quick execution, but those required by the limited strength of the soul and the long perseverance necessary for success. Saint Teresa tells us how the aims of her director, the master Daza, to elevate her virtue at once to the height of the divine favors that she was receiving, was almost disastrous for her.

The prudence of which we speak, which is discretion, is neither timidity nor laziness. It knows the divine exigencies and never consents, even in the face of difficulties, to diminish the ideal that has been glimpsed. It aims simply at adapting the actual possibilities of the soul to the demands of God, and at not using up prematurely the forces that are necessary for a long journey. It puts forth a constantly sustained effort; and, when confronted by a greater obstacle, it knows how to mobilize all the energies of the soul for the violence that success requires. [...]

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Source: Fr. Marié-Eugene, I Want to See God, trans. by M. Verda Clare (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics, 1953), 284–285.

Becoming an "Elite"—Prudence

In May 2010, Seth Godin wrote,

In the developing world, there's often a sharp dividing line between the elites and everyone else. The elites have money and/or an advanced education. It's not unusual to go to the poorest places on earth and find a small cadre of people who aren't poor at all. Sometimes, this is an unearned position, one that's inherited or acquired in ways that take advantage of others. Regardless, you can't just announce you're an elite and become one. 

In more and more societies, though (including my country and probably yours [and I'm including virtually the entire planet here, except perhaps North Korea] ), I'd argue that there's a different dividing line. This is the line between people who are actively engaged in new ideas, actively seeking out change, actively engaging--and people who accept what's given and slog along. It starts in school, of course, and then the difference accelerates as we get older. Some people make the effort to encounter new challenges or to grapple with things they disagree with. They seek out new people and new opportunities and relish the discomfort that comes from being challenged to grow (and challenging others to do the same). [...] 

[Becoming an elite is] because of a choice, the decision to be aware and engaged, to challenge a status quo of your choice.

Source: Seth Godin, "Are You an Elite?," Seth's Blog, May 11, 2010, accessed February 16, 2014, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/05/are-you-an-elite.html.

In more general terms, Godin indicates the option that is available to all regardless of their financial or living circumstances, the option to take responsibility for their actions, their lives, their orientation—and ultimately it will be either towards God or away from God. What Godin is actually talking about, when translated into the language of the Catholic heritage of moral philosophy and theology, is the difference between those with prudence (combined with a certain magnanimity) and those without it.

The Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan called this reflective self-appropriation, a series of actions by which we examine our experience, form an insight regarding it, make a judgment, and then decide to act on our insights and judgments. This process is, really, a contemporary version of what St. Thomas called the steps for acquiring prudence: reflection, judgment, action. It is a necessary step in order to be both a good human as human (for those who are legitimately ignorant of Christian revelation, wherever they may be) and a good Christian. Prudence shows us our proper goals and the right means to attain them. Magnanimity encourages us on to endeavor towards great things, those things worthy of honor, those things which give glory to God.