How do we measure the value or worth of spiritual practices? How do we know if “we are getting anyplace”? Should we even ask if it is “working” for us?
Maybe some advice from the Desert Fathers and Mothers would be helpful,
“The virtue to which all spiritual work of the Desert Fathers and Mothers led was the supreme virtue of compassion; only increase in love for others is seen to be a reliable sign of spiritual growth. When John Main was asked, how we should prepare for meditation, he said “by many acts of kindness”. In the end the essence is not how well you meditate but how well you love.”
This sounds very similar to something St Teresa of Avila told us,
“The important thing is not to think much but to love much; and so do that which best stirs you to love.”
How do your spiritual practices “stir you to love”?
How does your church going, worship attending and generally all your activities “stir you to love?”