Building on yesterday’s meditation on Penitence, I come to the practical question of spiritual practice for the likewise harried. A sincere daily act of contrition, buoyed by the weekly charism of sacramental penitence and absolution, is as simple as 5 minutes set aside for reflection on the day past.
Plato said ” all is remembrance.” So it is in the case of contrition. At the close of the day, with a few questions as my guide, I can feed my soul’s need for therapeutic fine tuning and awareness of acts that, in the moment, may have been mindless and automatic:
- What did I deliberately do today motivated by a sincere appreciation for someone else?
- What were my missed opportunities?
- What games did I play that weakened the spiritual field?
- Of what was I conscious that ordinarily I have tended to ignore?
- What did I learn today that I want to carry into tomorrow?
- What ONE question do my actions today raise about being more fully and rightly myself tomorrow?
- What feedback would my patron saint ask me on reviewing the day I’ve just lived?
- How would I answer it?
Mohandas Gandhi once said:
Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
A broom, a dustpan, a wash cloth and we’re all set.
© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
The Harried Mystic 
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