Category: Disciplines

A spiritual discipline is a spiritual practice that you do. It is training one’s spiritual faculties and moral character. Prayer, for example, is a discipline, it is something that you do.

A virtue is a disposition that results in behavior that is good, beneficial, and pleasing to God it is the quality of one’s character.

The Difference

Disciplines are something you do, virtues are something you are. Humility is a virtue, humbling yourself is a discipline.

Although they are different, they are related. Humbling yourself leads to one gaining the virtue of humility. Acts lead to dispositions. This is important.

Sowing and Reaping

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

“But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites (Matthew 6:16); for they fast on the second [Monday] and fifth day [Thursday] of the week; but fast on the fourth day [Wednesday] and the Preparation [Friday]” (Didache 8:1).

First, let’s not get legalistic about this. It got so bad in the fourth century that if a layperson did not fast during these times, unless he was sick, he was to be excommunicated (Canon 69 of The Apostolic Canons). Fasting was created for man, not man for fasting.

But fasting is important, besides the physical benefits. It is a strong spiritual medicine that can heal many afflictions (Mark 9:29). If Jesus’ needed to fast, how much more do we (Matt. 4:2). The early believers fasted (Acts 13:2; 1 Cor. 7:5). Therefore, we should fast.

The easiest way to incorporate fasting into your routine is to follow the practice of the early church and fast every Wednesday and Friday. And how do we do this? St. Epiphanios says: “We fast on Wednesday and Friday until the ninth hour.” St. Benedict (Canon 41) also designates that the fast of Wednesday and Friday is until the ninth hour, which is 3 pm.

And why did the church choose Wednesday and Friday? According to the Holy Hieromartyr Peter (Canon 15): “On Wednesday because on this day the council of the Jews was gathered to betray our Lord; on Friday because on this day He suffered death for our salvation.”

Source
Exomologetarion by St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite

I believe that there are four disciplines that must be in the prayer life of a Christian hermit. They are silence, solitude, simplicity, and surrender

Silence

Silence is both interior and exterior. The exterior silence is to withdraw from sound. To sit in silence and contemplate on the Divine. Inner silence is about stilling the thoughts. About basking in the presence of God.

Solitude

Solitude is the defining discipline for the hermit. It also has an inner and outer aspect. Solitude is to withdraw from society and from people. This solitude is about being alone, without being lonely. Inner solitude is the flight of the alone to the Alone.

Simplicity

Simplicity is a key discipline for the daily life of a hermit. Clutter is an enemy. Simplicity today is called minimalism. It’s about getting rid of the non-essential, and keeping the essential. But it is the path to experience the blessedness of possessing nothing. The key is non-attachment.

Surrender

And the most essential discipline for a Christian hermit is surrender. It is the key to developing a deeper relationship with Christ. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The ultimate goal is absolute surrender of heart, soul, mind and body.

So these are the four foundational spiritual disciplines for the prayer life of a Christian hermit. I will talk about them more later. But they are my daily companions.

Henri Nouwen wrote:

“In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make, no meetings to attend, no music to entertain, no books to distract, just me—naked, vulnerable, weak, sinful, deprived, broken—nothing.

“It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something.”