Spiritual Excellence

I've been thinking of a lot of things pertaining to Christian Spirituality (and by Christian I mean Catholic) and I had one of those light-bulb-over-the-head *Eureka* moments. They come few and far between but are always a pleasant surprise.

The moment came in one of the most unsuspecting places. I was watching the movie "The Last Samurai" starring the Scientology poster boy Tom Cruise. For those of you who have not seen the movie (which I highly recommend as it is the most brilliant performance of Tom Cruise's less than stellar reperatoire), Tom's character, Cpt. Nathan Algren, has been hired by Japanese businessmen in the mid 1870's to train an army due to his bravery in the American Indian Wars. The purpose of this army is to squash a rebellion of Samurai who are fighting the increasing westernization of Japan, the westernization that these businessmen are proliferating and becoming wealthy from.
During the battle for which the peasant army was woefully unprepared, Cpt. Algren is captured by the Samurai led by their Lord Katsumoto after he defends himself admirably enough to avoid slaughter. He is then brought to a mountain village very remote and breathtaking and informed that since the winter snows have now blocked all the passes, there is no conceivable escape. During his time in the village he starts to notice the people and culture. In what seems like a cross between Stockholm Syndrome and plain curiosity he starts to understand the Samurai a little better. Then he drops what was like a bombshell to me. Presented here in paraphrase he says "From the time these people rise to the time they sleep, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever it is they do. Everything is an artform when done perfectly." The movie shows clips of the swordmaker making swords, the Samurai doing excercises in the fields, a woman making tea and it makes it look like everyone is trying to perfect what they do and to do it perfect every time.

I then thought "That is a very admirable goal. What is it that I do that I may strive to perfect?" I have a job apprenticing to be an Automotive Service Technician and perfecting that is a lifelong process requiring constant training. I have lost some weight and could use a little more training for my body to bring myself into good physical shape and tone. However, since this is a Catholic blog, the answer I'm really driving at is the need to perfect oneself spiritually, after all Scripture says that we must be perfect as the Father is perfect. But just how does one go about that? What does it mean to attain Spiritual Excellence?

This is where I remember that I am a Catholic now and I wipe away the sweat already beading on my forehead. We have the Saints! That is what they are for, to look to as an example of Spiritual Excellence. The one however that came to mind first was St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Alcoholics Anonymous and all the Anonymous groups have programs based on his teachings designed to break addictions and problem behaviour and this is good because let's face it, I'm addicted to sin sometimes and it is definitely problem behaviour. So I have found a copy of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises online in PDF format here. (You must be a member to get it but membership is free. The site also has a long litany of other works by authors and Early Church Fathers and whatnot.)
I figured that if you want to be physically in shape you exercise and discipline your body, so if you want to be in good spiritual shape, you must exercise and discipline your spirit.

So I will read the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and make a valiant attempt to employ them in the pursuit of Spiritual Excellence. Pray for me in this endeavour as we don't ever perfect ourselves so much as we allow Christ to perfect us. This will be interesting. To be continued...