The year 2020 has certainly been one of those years for the record books. This global pandemic has really changed so many things in our lives – things that we used to take for granted. Our definition of freedom ‘to do what we want, when we want and where we want’ may never be the same.
I read an article about how our life in lock-down is forcing all of us to live like monks. As we have become somewhat accustomed to shelter-in-place and home-quarantine, this has hopefully given us the opportunity to get over our fear of solitude and fully embrace our spiritual connection with God.
Have we embraced our inner monk during this solitude? If not, here are seven ways that we can live like a monk every single day (pandemic or not).
- Pray unceasingly. Way back before the pandemic, we were probably so busy that our prayer life was put on the back burner. Maybe we managed to attend Sunday Mass or say a prayer before a meal, but there is a fairly good chance that the activity of prayer was not listed in our daily planner or calendar. Why not take this time at home to re-introduce prayer into your daily life? Prayer is all about having a conversation with God. Take a few minutes at the start of your day and begin with a prayer. I find this to be an outstanding way to launch into my day. Try some lectio divina (sacred reading) on the daily scripture readings. Maybe delve into contemplative prayer, meditation, or even the rosary. You can even pray when doing chores. Anytime is a good time for prayer! And the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Find little ways to pray throughout your day, and you will discover how it will change your life.
- Practice silence. If you have ever been to a monastery or on a silent retreat, you are familiar with the connection between silence and spirituality. There is something about being silent and being in God’s holy presence. This is often unsettling for many people, as they do not like silence mainly because they are afraid that they will be challenged by God to do something that they don’t want to do or hear something that they don’t want to hear. But when we open ourselves to the possibility that God speaks to us (and God does), then we will be open to hear what God wants to say. We cannot listen if we constantly surround ourselves with the noise of everyday life. Find a way to integrate some silence in your day. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you hear.
- Live simply. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how to live without some of the ‘necessities’ of life. When these things were ‘removed’ from our lives, we found a way to adapt – or at least we tried. Living simply means to learn to do more with less by removing the non-essentials in our lives. The essentials include physical nourishment, a place to rest, and our community. The non-essentials are everything else. Determine what are the non-essentials in your life and keep only the things you really need. If you are struggling with eliminating certain things, ask yourself: does this thing contribute to the well-being of myself and those around me? When we eliminate the extras in our lives, we will find that we stress less and live more.
- Desire life balance. When I talk with people, I hear a tale of two lives: pre-COVID19 and current-COVID19. Before the pandemic, life was lived in overdrive – having too much to do and not enough time to do it. We pushed and pulled ourselves in multiple directions in order to achieve everything on our to-do list. But when the pandemic hit, we suddenly realized the importance of spending quality time with family (and even missing the opportunity to be with family). We re-discovered a work/life balance that had been missing for quite some time. We must find a way to continue to live this way, creating time blocks for both work and home life. Let’s face it, all things in life should never be one extreme or the other. True balance in life is essential and achievable if you genuinely want it and work for it.
- Live as if you’re going to die. As morbid as this sounds, this is an important habit. Most of us plan out our lives scene-by-scene like in a movie, but never take into account how the movie ends. When we live every day as if it were our last, we appreciate life more and continually remind ourselves of how precious life really is. We need to stop seeing life as something to be lived, but rather something to be cherished.
- Practice patience. This is often the most challenging for people. We often find ourselves losing patience over some of the silliest things. But this quarantine period is the perfect time to learn some important life lessons on how to be more patient. We should pray every day for patience, and passionately believe that it is attainable. If we can focus our attention on being at peace with ourselves, we will notice that our actions will reflect that peace. Practicing patience takes time, and that’s part of the challenge. Being patient is a virtue and striving to incorporate patience into our lives will definitely set us on the true path of inner peace.
- Serve others. To live like a monk is to live a life of service. This means reaching out to all of the marginalized in our society including the sick, hungry, and poor; those who are persecuted and those in despair; those experiencing prejudice and those in need of compassion. It also means being kind to strangers and loving our neighbors – regardless of race, color, or creed. To be a follower of Jesus, our way of acting should be different than the world’s way. We are called by our baptism to go and make a difference in the world. We can and must do this, even during a pandemic. But if we are physically unable to go out into the world, we can at least be with others spiritually. Serving others teaches us humility and ensures that we are not focusing our lives on being selfish, but selfless.
So, where do we go from here? What are we going to do with this stay-secluded opportunity? I believe that we need to continue to find ways to incorporate the life-giving habits of monks into our daily lives. This pandemic is challenging us to take a good look at our lives through a different lens. As we take in this new view, may we prayerfully listen to God so that we may grow day-by-day into the image of Christ for all to see.
