Spiritual Apathy

Struggling with spiritual apathy is extremely tough. If you don't know what it is, imagine stagnant water. There is no flow, no excitement, it's a breeding ground for disease and it stinks. That my friends is spiritual apathy. It lacks passion or zeal. If your searching on what to do for spiritual apathy you'll run into a whole mess of preachers who seem to suggest you need to

• read the bible 
• ok, I'm not one to disagree with reading the bible but if you're in spiritual apathy reading the bible cover to cover probably isn't the best solution, in fact reading in general tends to go like this: 'blah, blah blah'
• listen to great sermons
• what a bunch of crap - don't get me wrong, sermons can be great motivational starters, pathways to open you up to see something in a different way but after the first "joy" of the motivational talk, you need to put foot to pavement and that's when spiritual apathy will drown out any motivating sermon.
• Identify methods to get you out of spiritual apathy
• Great but then the author goes on to cite creating a mission statement, devising something according to your own set of values (and this from a Christian site on spiritual apathy!) Again, What a load of excrement! The whole part of being a Christian is that you live by a set of values that are not your own. You conform your life to the teachings of the church and yes by the way, that's painful! Suck it up! No Pain. No Gain.

Here are my suggestions

• Identify methods to traverse spiritual apathy
• If you're a newbie this might mean learning the teachings of the church. Small bites folks, small bites!
• If you're spiritually mature there is no greater companion than Jesus. Get you're lazy butt to adoration and let Him minister to your needs. If you're a priest, or laity or you minister to other's needs on a continual basis, you need to be ministered to as well. Sit your ass in front of the Blessed Sacrament and allow HIM to minister to you. It IS a cure for spiritual apathy but mind you, if it pleases him to give you that burden then you better park your butt in front of Him because you can't minister without him. Oh, and while I'm on it, it does not count to "sort of be in adoration" if you are in the middle of holding adoration sessions for others and having to minister to others as part of adoration if you are in spiritual apathy. Ministering to others during adoration as in a retreat can be spiritually fulfilling but if you are in spiritual apathy you need dedicated time so Jesus can minister to you. So many ministers struggle with this one. If this is the case for you, is it any wonder you're in spiritual apathy?

• Spend quality time with God
• Now this can be spiritual reading of the bible or bible verses which is different from reading the bible - it's not meant to be read from cover to cover. Spend time in our savior's life. Be with Him. Let scripture wash over you, preferably in his presence.

Now, that IS a cure for spiritual apathy but the caveat is it's only the cure if and only if it pleases our Blessed Lord to lift spiritual apathy from your midst. Otherwise this is the mechanism by which you can navigate through spiritual apathy. St. Ignatius has a set of rules (4-9) that are applicable to desolation in general and those should be reviewed and followed in dealing with spiritual apathy. Adoration is totally within adhering to Rule #6 of intensifying our prayer life when in desolation.