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Course 20 · Lesson 7.2

Choosing practices: Scripture, prayer, fasting, rest and service

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 20 outline

Module 1: Spiritual Formation and the Doctrines Behind Prayer

  1. What spiritual formation means in Scripture and tradition
  2. How the Trinity, the Incarnation and grace shape Christian prayer
  3. A map of the prayer traditions: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant
  4. Ways and stages of growth: purgation, illumination and union, and their critics

Module 2: The Desert and Early Monasticism

  1. Anthony, Athanasius and the beginning of the desert movement
  2. The sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers: how to read them
  3. John Cassian and the eight thoughts that trouble the mind
  4. From the hermit to the community: Pachomius, Basil and Benedict

Module 3: Praying with Scripture and with the Church

  1. Lectio divina: its history and the four movements
  2. The Psalms as the prayer of the church
  3. The Divine Office and the Liturgy of the Hours: hours, texts and structure
  4. Using the daily office alone, and the Protestant daily prayer tradition

Module 4: Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer

  1. Stillness and the prayer of the heart in the early Eastern church
  2. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its sources and its history
  3. Gregory Palamas and the fourteenth century controversy over light and energies
  4. Practice and cautions: the role of a guide and the warnings of the tradition

Module 5: Fasting, Discernment and Spiritual Direction

  1. Fasting in Scripture and in the three traditions
  2. Asceticism: its purpose, its dangers and its abuses
  3. The discernment of spirits from Antony and Cassian to Ignatius of Loyola
  4. Spiritual direction: the elder, the confessor, the pastor and the mentor

Module 6: Contemplation and Action

  1. Mary and Martha: how the church has read the two lives
  2. Prayer that issues in service: Benedict, Brother Lawrence and the Reformers on vocation
  3. When practice goes wrong: pride, quietism and spiritual experience without doctrine

Module 7: Building a Rule of Life

  1. What a rule of life is, and what the word rule meant for Benedict
  2. Choosing practices: Scripture, prayer, fasting, rest and service
  3. Dryness, failure and starting again
  4. Reviewing and adjusting a rule over time

All courses

Program / Course 20: Spiritual Theology / Lesson 7.2

What you will learn

  • Name the main families of practice that the tradition has recommended: Scripture, prayer, worship, fasting, rest and service.
  • Explain the theological reasons for each, including the biblical basis for rest.
  • Describe criteria the traditions use for choosing among practices.
  • Distinguish practices commanded or instituted by the church from practices chosen for prudence.

The big idea

A rule of life draws from a small number of families of practice that Christians have kept for centuries: hearing and reading Scripture, prayer, public worship, fasting and self-denial, rest and sabbath, and service. Each has a biblical basis and a reason in the tradition. The traditions also give guidance on how to choose: begin from purpose, respect season of life and temperament, belong to a community, seek counsel and keep the number of practices small. Some practices are held to be given by Christ or the church, and others are choices of prudence, and the difference matters.

Key terms

Means of grace
Ordinary channels through which Christians believe God gives grace, such as prayer, Scripture, worship and the sacraments.
Works of piety and works of mercy
Wesley’s two groups of practice: works of piety directed toward God, such as prayer and fasting, and works of mercy directed toward neighbor, such as visiting the sick.
Sabbath
The day of rest, commanded in the Ten Commandments. Christians have kept Sunday as the Lord’s day, with different understandings of its link to the sabbath.
Precepts of the Church
In Catholic teaching, a short list of minimum duties, including Sunday Mass, annual confession, communion at Easter, fasting and abstinence, and support of the Church.
Season of life
A stage with particular demands and limits, such as early parenthood, illness or caring for a dying parent, which affects what practices are possible.
Temperament
A person’s natural bent, such as being quiet or talkative, which affects what practices feel natural and what stretches them.

Background

The earliest summary of Christian practice is in Acts 2:42, which says the first believers continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and prayer remain the center of the church’s life in all traditions. Around them, the tradition added private reading, fasting, almsgiving and rest.

Choosing among these is not a matter of taste alone. The traditions teach that some are given by Christ: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, the reading and preaching of the word. Others are the church’s customs. Others are personal methods, such as a particular way of praying a psalm. Wesley distinguished instituted means of grace, given by Christ, from prudential means, such as particular groups or schedules, which a person adopts as wisdom suggests. The difference helps in judging what is required and what is optional.

This lesson introduces each family and its theological ground. The practical details of a daily plan are covered in Course 25, and the following lessons look at failure and review.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Scripture

The tradition holds that God speaks through Scripture, and so reading and hearing it is basic. The psalmist says that blessed is the person who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night (Psalm 1:2). Jesus answers temptation with Scripture (Matthew 4). Practices include public reading in worship, private reading, memorizing and lectio divina. The traditions differ on how Scripture is interpreted, with Catholics and Orthodox reading it within the tradition of the church and Protestants emphasizing the plain sense and the believer’s access, but all hold it central.

Step 2: Prayer and public worship

Prayer, as Module 1 showed, is addressed to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Practices include set prayers, the Hours, free prayer, intercession and silence. Public worship is not optional extra in any tradition. Hebrews 10:25 tells believers not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. Catholic teaching includes the Sunday obligation, and the Orthodox keep the liturgy. Protestants stress the Lord’s Day gathering. A rule that does not include corporate worship is incomplete in nearly every tradition.

Step 3: Fasting and self-denial

As Module 5 showed, fasting is attested in Scripture and practiced in varied ways. In a rule it may mean a weekly fast, abstaining from certain foods in Lent or giving up a habit, such as a form of media. The cautions about health and pride apply. Many writers suggest beginning with something small and fitting, and joining it with almsgiving.

Step 4: Rest

Rest is a practice with a strong biblical foundation. God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). The fourth commandment tells Israel to keep the sabbath day holy, both in remembrance of creation (Exodus 20:8-11) and of release from slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Jesus says that the sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), and the letter to the Hebrews speaks of a sabbath rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9).

Christians differ on how the sabbath applies. Reformed churches have often taught that the fourth commandment continues in the Lord’s Day, with a strict view in the Puritan tradition. Catholic and Orthodox teaching treats Sunday as the day of Resurrection with rest from work, and Lutherans stress that the commandment is fulfilled in rest in Christ. All agree that sleep, rest and leisure are not enemies of holiness, and that a rule that leaves no rest is flawed.

Step 5: Service and choosing wisely

Service, as Module 6 showed, belongs to the rule: visiting the sick, hospitality, almsgiving, work for justice and help for family and neighbors. Wesley called these works of mercy and insisted they were means of grace. Choosing among practices, the traditions suggest several guides. Begin from the purpose. Include practices from each family. Start small. Consider season of life and temperament, and do not copy another person’s rule. Join a community. Seek counsel. And review, which the final lesson addresses.

Cassian’s principle of discretion applies here: a practice that is good in itself can be wrong for a particular person at a particular time.

  1. Which family of practice is most missing from my life?
  2. Which practices are given by Christ or the church, and which are my choices?
  3. How does my temperament affect what feels natural and what would stretch me?
  4. What does my present season of life allow?
  5. How do I currently handle rest, and what does it say about my beliefs?
  6. Who could help me decide what to include?

Examples

A balanced week

A schoolteacher with two young children chooses five modest practices: a psalm and a short prayer each morning, Sunday worship, a weekly day without work after church, a monthly meal given to a neighbor, and a Friday with simple food. The list is small but touches each family. (A constructed example.)

Instituted and prudential

In Wesley’s terms, prayer, Scripture and the Lord’s Supper are instituted means of grace. A prayer group that meets on Tuesdays is a prudential means, helpful but not commanded. A person who misses Tuesday should not feel they have broken a command.

A season that changes the rule

A man caring for a dying parent finds he cannot keep his usual prayer rule. His priest tells him that the care is his prayer for now, and suggests a single psalm at night. The rule bends with the season. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic teaching sets minimum duties in the precepts of the Church and invites additional practices according to state of life. The Church encourages Scripture reading, the Hours, the rosary, fasting, almsgiving and works of mercy, and holds that Sunday is a day of worship and rest.

Orthodox

Orthodox practice organizes life around the liturgical year, with fasts and feasts and a daily prayer rule. The tradition treats rest on Sunday as part of the Lord’s Day, and emphasizes that individual practices be adapted by a confessor.

Protestant

Protestants emphasize Scripture, prayer, preaching and the Lord’s Day. Reformed churches have often taught a strong view of sabbath, while Lutherans and others interpret the commandment in light of Christ. Wesley’s list of means of grace and the Puritan emphasis on duties of piety shaped many practices.

Scholarly and practical view

Scholars of religion note that rest and ritual are common features of human religious life. Health writers note the benefits of regular rest and the harms of overwork, a point that religious teachers have long made. Counselors of spiritual practice commonly advise starting small.

Why it matters

Many people build a rule from enthusiasm and discard it within weeks. Knowing the families of practice, their ground and the criteria for choosing helps a student pick a modest, balanced plan and distinguish what is essential from what is optional. It also protects against ignoring rest, worship or service because they are less dramatic.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: A rule is made of private devotions.

Correction: All traditions include public worship, service and fellowship. A rule of private devotions alone is incomplete.

Misunderstanding: More practices mean a better rule.

Correction: Benedict, the Orthodox elders and Protestant pastors advise a small number, kept steadily. Overload leads to collapse.

Misunderstanding: Rest is idleness, or the lack of discipline.

Correction: Rest is commanded and linked to creation and redemption. The tradition counts it among the practices of faith.

Misunderstanding: Every practice is equally required.

Correction: Traditions distinguish what Christ or the church commands from prudential choices, and the difference affects how to treat missing a practice.

Knowledge check

What are the main families of practice for a rule?

Scripture, prayer and public worship, fasting and self-denial, rest and sabbath, and service. They are rooted in Acts 2:42 and in Jesus’ teaching, and each has theological reasons. A balanced rule touches each family in a modest way.

What is the biblical basis for rest?

God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3), the fourth commandment tells Israel to keep the sabbath in memory of creation and of release from Egypt, Jesus says it was made for man (Mark 2:27), and Hebrews speaks of a sabbath rest for God’s people. Christians differ on how the commandment applies.

What is the difference between instituted and prudential means of grace?

In Wesley’s terms, instituted means such as prayer, Scripture and the Lord’s Supper were given by Christ. Prudential means, such as a particular group, schedule or method, are chosen as wisdom suggests. Missing a prudential practice is not breaking a command.

Give two criteria for choosing practices.

Begin from the purpose and keep the number small. Consider season of life and temperament, belong to a community and seek counsel. Cassian’s discretion adds that a good practice may be wrong for a particular person at a particular time.

Think it through

  1. What do your practices say about what you believe matters?
  2. Which practice would you most want to give up, and what does that reveal?
  3. How could your community help you keep a practice?

Independent assignment

A draft inventory

In your notebook, write 350 to 500 words. List your current practices under the headings Scripture, prayer and worship, fasting, rest and service. Mark each as instituted or prudential, and note any family with nothing. Then write a short paragraph naming one practice you would add and one you would reduce, and the reasons drawn from this lesson. Do not share this with anyone.

Further study