“Sister, what else can I do? I pray, I go to Mass, I live a good life, and still, I want to go deeper. How can I deepen my spirituality and, as they say, become spiritually mature?”   

As I sat with this young woman discerning her vocation, I listened to her desire to grow in a relationship with God and become a spiritually mature adult, and I smiled.  I smiled because I remember asking that same question thirty-three years ago of my spiritual director.  As I listened to this young discerner, I paused and wondered to myself, “Am I spiritually mature?  Have I made any progress in the spiritual life?”   

When I first asked that question, thirty-three years ago, I was a novice in my second year of formation to become a sister. I was living with nine other sisters at our retreat house in Niskayuna, NY, and to be honest, I felt like I was farther away from God at that time than I had been before entering the convent. What was happening to me? I was supposed to be “learning how to and living as a Dominican Sister.”  As I sat with my spiritual director, a wise Sister with more than 50 years of experience, I was truly seeking an answer. To be honest, I was looking for a simple answer.  

I said, “Just give me the five steps, and I can try it for thirty days.”  She laughed.... a hearty laugh that ended with a sweet smile. She said, “If I could give you that, I would author a book, sell it, and my congregation would be able to pay off all its bills.   Yes, I can give you a five-step plan and you can try it for thirty days, but you must live it for the rest of your life to become what you are seeking. To become, in the words of St. Catherine of Siena said, who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire. It is a lifelong quest.” 

In my eagerness, I asked her for the formula, and she gave it to me:   

1. Get up 

2. Greet God 

3. Ask God to guide you, use you, and help you to be and live your authentic self this day.  

4. Ask God to help you get out of God’s way.  

5. Wrap your day in a balanced combination of prayer, community, study, and ministry.  

6. At the end of the day, reflect on your day (where you met & served God, moved closer to God, moved away from God, ask for forgiveness, give thanks, and ask God to help you tomorrow.)   

7. Go to bed.  

8. Then, get up and do it all over again for the next fifty years.  

Scribbling frantically in my journal, I looked up and said, “That’s eight things, and...?”   

“And do it all again for as long as you live.”  She said as she smiled again. 

Returning to the present day, I looked up at the young woman eagerly awaiting my response and said, “Ok, get out your journal, and I will give you the plan. But I must warn you, it may be more than five steps.”   

So, if you are wondering how to grow in your relationship with God and to discern where God is calling you to live, as “God meant you to be,”, give us a call and start your journey of discernment today.  Contact us, explore opportunities for prayer & discernment, and take the first of those eight steps... “Get up!”