Practicing spiritual agility

You might have heard of Tim Busch, the Catholic philanthropist and founder of The Napa Institute. You may have heard how he gathers Catholics with diverse theological and liturgical viewpoints for “salon dinners”—evenings of Mass, the rosary and conversation over a meal in someone’s home. Busch is also quite familiar with Ignatian practices of prayer. He says he’s more “at home” when at eucharistic adoration and praying the rosary. But practicing Ignatian contemplation, including an eight-day guided retreat, has made a profound impact on him. This week on “The Spiritual Life” podcast with Father James Martin, Tim opened up about his exploration of different forms of prayer and spirituality, and how they’ve inspired him to pursue conversations geared toward overcoming polarization in the church.

What I found most fascinating about this conversation was both Tim’s willingness to stretch himself spiritually and his admission that he often returns to the prayer most natural to him. “I’m not a meditation guy,” Tim says matter-of-factly. “I’m a guy that wants to get things done and when you stop and do this meditation,” he pauses and adds, “I know it’s very important, especially for the interior, but I’m like, ‘O.K., let’s get this over with so I can get onto the next thing.’” 

Tim Busch is clearly a man of action, which is something that has served him well in business: “Everything I’ve done in business, people say, ‘How’d you do it?’ I go, ‘I don’t know,’ but I just keep going, and the fire’s behind you, enemy’s ahead, let’s go fight the enemy.” And yet, this action-oriented nature hasn’t stopped him from exploring new meditative practices. That takes real spiritual agility! 

So what insight can we draw from this conversation about different styles of prayer? Well, for starters, it’s important to challenge ourselves from time to time. If you’ve always prayed the rosary, why not try the Examen or sign up for an Ignatian retreat where you can practice contemplative prayer? Conversely, if you have been doing the Examen or praying with Scripture, consider joining a prayer group or picking up your rosary. There are a multitude of ways to pray. The idea is simply to consider trying something that is different. In doing so, you might be surprised to encounter God in a new way. 

But if the new practice is a struggle, there’s also no shame in returning to your tried-and-true forms of prayer. This is something that Tim Busch expressed a great deal of freedom around. “I think everybody’s gotta go where they’re comfortable,” he concludes on the podcast. This is a particularly important message for those of us with an active inner critic. It can be tempting to treat prayer like every other regimen in our lives, in which we are constantly striving for improvement, comparing ourselves to the perceived piety of others and self-flagellating when we show up imperfectly. When we find ourselves in this territory, it is important to carefully discern what is actually helping us connect with God.

You may connect to God already with great ease. If that’s the case, keep showing up in the ways that are most true to you.