“A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort…..The Spiritual Disciplines in and of themselves have no merit whatsoever.  They posses no righteousness, contain no rectitude.  Their purpose – their only purpose – is to place us before God….Then the grace of God steps in, takes this simple offering of ourselves, and creates out of it the kind of person who embodies the goodness of God….All disciplines are permeated by the enabling grace of God.”

from A Year with God:  Living out the Spiritual Disciplines edited by  Richard J. Foster and Julia L. Roller, pp xiv – xvi.